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The latter are essentially of two types: 1) abnormal, incongruous events (coincidences, “mishaps” particularly at night); 2) warning signs by nature and, more specifically, by animals. The signs warned the people who knew how to read them: ''laster norbait hilen da''. Therefore, it was essential to know how to read the sign of a curse, the evil eye, ''belhagilea,'' and other spells, ''konjuratze'', wanting the death of so-or-so, ''herioa desiratzea''.
Finally, there are grounds to believe that the dead continued to be active among many of our compatriots back in “old times” in the form of errant souls, ''arima erratiak. ''. Real beings of a middle world, those still active errant souls, dwellers of the shadows, but also of the fugitive flicker, of the deeply exhaled breath, would only enter with great difficulty in the antechamber that the Church prepared for them to wait that great judgement that would presumably by the last. There was a widespread belief that even though the dead left, they did not necessarily disappear. Ultimately, the Church could not contradict this idea and would rather embrace it by giving it a special meaning (thus, God converts the dead child into an angel).
Dying has led to customs that highlight the public status around the death. In principle, this is where the nun sacristan, ''andere serora,'' a key person of the traditions alongside the ecclesiastical ritual, came into play. She was in charge of tolling the church bells and that message had a double meaning, to: 1) notify the community of the living (including the animals and nature that marked the passing, “they were idling”); 2) help the dying “comforting them”, “helping them to leave”. The dying person thus knew that, during that time, he was the centre of all the attention and care and that the prayers were being offered up for him. Nobody died alone or abandoned.