Aas

Geography

The village dominates the town of Laruns and faced the Massif of Gourzy and with the Pic of Ger.

Toponymy

The toponym Aas appears in the forms Haas (1343, homages of Béarn), Ahas-in-Ossau (1384, notaries of Navarrenx), Saint-Laurent-with Aas (1654, insinuations of the diocese of Oloron).

History

In 1090, Aas counted 15 fires. In 1385,13 families are always indexed. It will be necessary to await the rise of the Water-Good at the end of the XIXe century so that the village reaches forty houses and ten barns.
Its inhabitants were formerly famous for their roughness; one called them in Patois the “ queyos ”, because it was said them that they were accustomed to accommodating the foreigners with stone blow (or “queyos” in Occitan).

The Pastoralisme

In high OS valley, the rough ground, altitude and the climatic conditions do not allow early product a culture, cereals, or vegetables such as one can market it.

On the other hand the pastures of low and the high mountain support the breeding of cows and especially of ewe and goat's milk cheeses able to be satisfied with close-cropped grass heights.

The devette

The devette, i.e. the transit of the animals of low at the high mountain (flat of Gourette and the Plate of Ley) during June, their return of at the end of August to October and their departure for the plain for the winter, answered of long time an economic need. In spite of the reduced importance of the livestock, the meadows surrounding the village could not ensure at the same time the food of the animals lasting the summer and garner fodder necessary to the passage of the winter.

The displacement of the herds was of this fact at the same time necessary and severely organized. The dates were decided by the municipal council in order to avoid a too early rise which would have deteriorated the meadows of altitude before pushes back complete pastures.

From June to October, the shepherds lived in the dry stone huts of the plate and devoted their time to the maintenance of the herd and the production of cheese. An average herd produced 3 cheeses per in June day and one per day as from July.

The shepherds were supplied by people of the village who dealt with their side of the harvests.

The devette was abandoned in the years 1980 on the territory of the commune of the Water-Good .

The Transhumance

To the All Saints' day the herds were led on the pastures of plain to spend there the winter, it was the Transhumance. If the majority of the herds stopped in the north of Pau, on the plain of the Bridge-Length pertaining to the commune, some continued until in the Gironde, in order to clean and Fertilizer the Vignoble of Bordeaux after the grape harvest. That represented one week of walk.

Back to next June, the herds went towards the village for a news devette.

The whistling ones

Characteristic du village, the inhabitants were accustomed to communicating while whistling of a side of valley to another. Indeed, the valley forms a genuine guide of wave making it possible to use these means of communication between the pastures and the village.

It is about a language (the Langage whistled) rather complex which was transmitted from generation to generation. The appearance of novel methods of communication made disappear this language become obsolete.

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