Observations placeholder

The Neanderthal's Necklace – Juan Luis Arsuaga

I know that it was the Monterrey pines and the eucalyptuses that drove out beings like the Galtxagorri, guardian angels so tiny that four of them could fit on a pincushion.  The Galtxgorri had protected favoured people, including the Lamians, sirens who spent their days brushing their hair alongside forest streams; Basajaun, the Lord of the Forest; Erensuge, the terrible man-eating serpent; and Mari, the goddess who inhabited Basque mountains and caves. 

There is neither magic nor mystery on the pine and eucalyptus plantations, where song birds are never heard, and neither grass nor ferns carpet the ground.  The fragile fairies of Basque mythology could not possibly find suitable abode in these monotonous expanses of identical trees where no mist swirls about overhanging beech, chestnut, or oak limbs.