THE STORY OF JOAN GASPA' GIL

"It was the end of last century and the "tapat", at the time, was Jaon Gaspa' Gil, he was the general assistant in a flock with more than 4.000 sheeps at the end of the "Espot", probably in the area of Saint Mauricio's pond. One spring night, the shepherd noticed the presence of a bear that made the cattle nervous and the day after they organized themselves to put an end to the problem. Joan Gaspa', who was nearly 10 years, followed them while they were hunting the plantigrade, and even if it was getting dark, he went on all by himself. After passing a rock, the boy met the animal who was looking for food. The method he wanted to use to kill him, was the same used by the most expert hunters at a time when guns could shoot only once: they obliged the animal to stand on his hind legs, and this meant the animal was going to attack, so they could shoot at him. The weapon Gaspà was going to use worked by means of a piston, so it was necessary to load gunpowder and put the bullet in its mouth. So the shooting had to be precise, because loading was a long and precise operation. It happened that when Gaspà was already in front of the beast, what his weapon did was a meaninless and worrying puff: the piston was wet. The bear instead was perfectly fit, so it threw itself on the boy. The boy protected himself with his arm at the bear's first blow, but the second one hit him on his shoulder. The nails pierced him like daggers and reached his lungs. Hugged in a mortal fight, the man and the beast fell on the ground. Joan Gaspa' brought with him a Pyrenean Mastiff that attacked the bear and starter biting it full of anger. In spite being wounded, the boy kept his clearness, so he could take out a small knife he had at his belt and forced it in the animal's belly with all the energy left….. In the meanwhile, on the other side of the wood, the shepherd who had joined the hunters heard the ferocious cries both of the man and the bear, and the barking of the mastiff, but could not reach them. When the cries stopped, friends thought that it had all finished for the young assistant. Nobody slept that night, but at dawn the legend of the Tapat had already been born. The shepherds found the corpse of the bear covered with frost, and under it, rolled up and still, but still breathing, was the young shepherd. The warmth of the body of his dead enemy had protected him from the cold in a night when the temperature had gone below 0. Joan Gaspa' needed more than a year to recover from his wounds. "Thanks to the dog" Gaspà always said when the neighbours asked him to repeat once again the story of his fighting.

Taken from the book "L'os del Pirineu, crònica d'un extermini" by Eugeni Casanova - Pagès Editors

Pictures taken from "El libro del Mastin del Pirineo" - Guara Editorial