TRANSPORTING THE DECEASED

Terra-cotta cartin Mohenho Daro http://asiahistoria.blgospot.com

The transportation of the deceased to their final resting place is often mentioned in the different ancient cultures that developed in the Near East. Cuneiform texts of the third millennium narrate a festival in Capadocia in which, on the fourth day, at dawn, the priest of the town of Hanhanna yokes the oxen to the god's cart (...). In the same geographic context of the Anatolian peninsula, the Hittite Storm-God Teshub used to travel on his cart with very primitive wheels, pulled by two sacred oxen, Sheri and Uri (Day and Night).. ¹. Similar episodes can be found in the Old Testament: king Josiah was taken in a cart from Megiddo to Jerusalem: His servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre... (2Kings 30). In Egypt the use of carts pulled by oxen to drag the catafalque with the mummy is amply recorded. The paintings in the royal tombs at Thebes are proof of it. Sometimes, the very same carts used to carry the deceased or miniature reproductions are found buried by the corpse or engraved on funeral stelae that mark the existence of tombs. Votive carts are common in Central Europe and, as we said above, we are aware of the existence of a beautiful example in Costa Figueira (Portugal).

CARRYING SAINTS

Medieval legends used carts to explain the events that justified the presence of saint figures in a given place. Thus, Saint Rosendo was baptized in San Miguel de Celanova because it was the place where the wheel of the cart carrying the baptismal font broke, and Saint Eufemia ended up in the cathedral of Ourense because two untamed oxen yoked to a cart took her from the Portuguese border to a place between the mountain ranges of O Xurés and Quinxo (Ourense). A conflict between Galician and Lusitanian people broke out when it was found, as both wanted to keep the holy remains for themselves. They friendly agreed to let luck decide, so they laid the body on a cart to which they yoked two untrained oxen, and let them go. The animals kept walking until they stopped at the entrance to the city of Ourense, where the corpse was received and taken to the Cathedral Church, in which it is still venerated nowadays.².

 

Likewise, two oxen pulling a cart were used to settle the disputes between two neighbouring villages over the building of the chapel that would shelter the image of the Virgin of A Franqueira, and, again, two untamed oxen belonging to Queen Lupa carried St. James the Apostle's body when it reached Padrón by boat.

Carts also played an important role in the building of chapels in the most remote and inaccessible places. A traditional legend says that Saint Mamede lived as a hermit at the top of the mountain that now bears his name, where he built a chapel. In order to carry the stones, he used a cart pulled by two roe deer. When a wolf ate one of them, he punished him by yoking him with the roe deer that was still alive and making him carry the stones³.

www.caminosantiago.org

TRANSPORT OF GOLD

There are several legends that link carts to gold, either as a means of transport or as a way to discover it. Don Álvaro Álvarez de Ulloa's servants used to carry their master's food to his table on a gold cart at the fortress of St. Tomé de Felpós (Palas de Rei). In the same town, in Rumín, the local priest found a gold chest hidden inside a funeral chamber and he carried it home on a cart pulled by two oxen. It was so heavy that the tracks of its wheels on the paths were visible for a long time:

"Os devanceiros puxeron entre os seus acordos (...) que en tempos xa ben afastados e mesmo intestimuñables había na fortaleza de Felpós gobernada polo golfín Alvaro Alvarez de Ulloa e destruída polo arcebispo Berenguel de Landoira un fermoso carro de ouro, que empregaban os seus criados para levarlle a comida á mesa ós seus señores, ós que eles prestaban servizo en armas e de servidume nesta moradía."⁴

 

The idea that Pre-Roman villages hide real treasures and that, in order to expose them to view, there is nothing like taking advantage of the permanent passing of carts is part of Galician folklore:

"Sabido é que non existe en Galicia un só castro no que non haxa un tesouro; este consiste a veces en dúas trabes ou vigas, unha de ouro e outra de alcatrán ou veleno. É frecuente que a trabe de ouro deba ser posta ó descuberto polas rodas dun carro ó ir profundizando as carrilleiras, entón o que leva o carro pasa a ser dono do tesouro"⁵.

 

TRADITIONS

On some dates especially relevant to traditional culture such as Midsummer Night or Carnival, it was usual to play all kinds of practical jokes such as stealing gates, throwing ants at people or blackening their faces with soot, throwing farelos and moving things around. Carts were one of the favourite farming implements for young people to move about. They stealthily took them out of their barns and used them to block paths, pushed them down a hill, turned them upside down..., the most vigorous ones did not hesitate to push them up to the atrium of the church. In As Teixugueiras (Cartelle, Ourense), the route that the Meco's cart follows every Shrove Tuesday commemorates how the neighbours lynched a messenger sent by the king to the village to collect the rents once the period specified in the local contract of the "vida de tres señores reis" had expired.