A small glossary of "bouvine" terms
"La bouvine" : designates all bulls and by extension everything to do with the Camargue bull.
"The Camargue races", begun at the start of the century, is a game between raseteurs" and bulls in the course of which men attempt, using the art of raset (i.e. shaving as close as possible to the bull), to remove the rosette (the cocade) fixed between the animal's horns. By its fighting spirit and its uncanny ability to anticipate the raseteur's actions, the bull actually becomes the real star in the arena. And in this game, it is difficult to know which of the two is having the most fun, the man or the animal !
"L’abrivado" is the arrival at high speed of the bious intended for the race, escorted by guardians on horseback. The boldest of the players then attempt to make one of the bulls escape... which the guardians have to bring back. It's all part of the game !
"Attrapaïre" : the one who catches the bulls during the abrivados.
"Bioù" : ox or bullock, a generic term that designates cows, bulls, calves and oxen.
"La Fé di bioù": faith in and love of the bull. The passion that the public has for everything that concerns bulls.
"Bandido" "break" in English. In the evening after the race, the return of the beasts to their meadow.
"Concours de manades" a race in which all the bulls come from different breeders.
"Capelado" parade of the raseteurs before the race.
"Simbeù" the ox that leads the manade ,or herd. He is brought out when the bull refuses to go back to the stalls after the race.
"Encierro" a word of Spanish origin that designates the corrida bulls from the coral to the arena. This does not exist in France, where the term means a small herd of young cows being let into closed-off streets.
"Ferrade" : marking the animals of a herd with a red-hot iron. This is usually done to yearling animals, the "anoubles".
Find out more : FFCC (Fédération Française de la Course Camarguaise) www.ffcc.info