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Even though shepherd is anyone who watches over any type of livestock, this name is used par excellence for the person who cares for, tends and guards the sheep. In Lezaun (N), a distinction was made between shepherd, who looked after the flock of sheep, and herdsman, who tended the other animals. There were two forms of shepherd in Basque: ''artzain'' looking after sheep and ''unai'' cattle<ref>Even though ''artzain ''comes from ''ardi''=sheep and ''zaindu''=guard, the etymology of ''unai ''is not as clear. Michelena said that it was tempting to see it coming from ''ule''=hair, wool, but that was not sustainable. See Luis MICHELENA. ''Fonética Histórica Vasca. ''San Sebastián: 1977, 2ª ed., p. 479.</ref>. When surveying Arraioz (Baztan-N), we came across ''uneia'' to describe the person in charge of looking after cattle. In the Souletin dialect spoken in Etxebarre, ''bordazain, ''which was used for the person in charge of the shepherd’s hut, has a similar meaning in popular speech to ''artzain'', shepherd, but their tasks are different, as the ''artzain ''works in the uplands and used to oversee a small transhumance. In any case, ''shepherd ''is the person who lives with the livestock and uses it for his own gain.
Aspects relating to the ownership of the flocks and the key aspects of their shepherding should be taken into account to analyse the conditions under which that work was carried out until the mid 20<sup>th</sup> 20th century. And the situation of a shepherd who was the owner of a small or medium-sized flock was different from that of the owner of many sheep or that of the municipal shepherd, contracted by the local residents. A difference is also made between the position of the person who just drove the flock to the mountain from the valley every day from the one who was required to travel hundreds of kilometres in search of grazing land or to remain cut off for months with only the animals for company.
In general, the owner-shepherd of a small flock of sheep prevailed on the Atlantic side of the watershed of the Basque Country; while employed shepherds looking after large flocks coexisted on the Mediterranean side with the shepherds contracted by the councils to drive and look after the local residents' sheep.
=== Shepherds of a way ===
In the past, there were shepherds employed in some places by important families that owned large flocks. Thus, and with respect to Navarra, shepherds on a wage were found in Liberri or Ayanz, in Aoiz, where they worked for two Marquises who owned large flocks. In Lodosa, Codés and Aragüés, shepherds were also employed, given that a couple of livestock farmers had flocks of up to a thousand sheep at the start of the 19<sup>th</sup> 19th century<ref>Severino PALLARUELO. ''Sobre cultura pastoril''. La Rioja: 1991, p. 287.</ref>. In the Elorz Valley, there were families lived off shepherding who contracted shepherds to look after the flock, even though they were already starting to disappear by the 1970s<ref>The data referring to this valley have been taken from Javier LARRAYOZ. “Encuesta etnográfica del Valle de Elorz (III)” in CEEN, VIII (1976) pp. 92, 95.</ref>.
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