Basques
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Basques. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
basks, a peculiar people inhabiting the border provinces of France and Spain on the Bay of Biscay. The Basques are supposed to be a remnant of a primitive people once occupying France and Spain. Like the Welsh of Britain, they have persisted in the mountain fastnesses of the Pyrenees. The Basque language, which is spoken by about 60,000 people, is unlike any other known. "'Tis said the Basques understand one another; for my part I will never believe it," said Scaliger. The Basques have preserved their own dress and customs. They are a simple, brave, independent people, cultivating small farms at home, but fond of seafaring. They are said to have been the first Europeans to catch the whale. Biscay is another spelling for basque. The bay of that name is therefore the Bay of the Basques. The short-skirted jacket or basque is an article of national dress worn by the Basque women. 2026 Editor's Note: The Basque riddle the entry poses has only deepened: Euskara really is a language isolate , related to not hing else on earth, a probable survivor of pre-Indo-European Europe. Basque identity later fueled a violent separatist struggle, the group ETA, and the world remembers the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in 1937 through Picasso's towering anti-war painting. (Ed: BR 2026-07-02)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or BISCAYANS (in their own language, Euscaldunac), a remarkable race of people dwelling partly in the S. W. corner of France, but mostly in the N. of Spain adjacent to the Pyrenees. They are probably descendants of the ancient Iberi, who occupied Spain before the Celts. They preserve their ancient language, former manners, and national dances, and make admirable soldiers, especially in guerrilla warfare. Their language is highly polysynthetic, and no connection between it and any other language has as yet been made out. There are four principal dialects, which are not only distinguished by their pronunciation and grammatical structure, but but differ even in their vocabularies. The Basques (about 700,000) occupy in Spain the provinces of Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and Alava; in France parts of the departments of the Upper and Lower Pyrenees, Ariége, and Upper Garonne. Some 200,000 are said to have emigrated tury to South America. BASRA. See BASSORA.