In Tras os Montes (top right of Portugal), the stick dance tradition is separate from the masking tradition. The stick dances are done in just 11 villages around Mirando do Douro and the dancers are called Pauliteiros. If you try that word on Youtube, you'll find plenty of footage. Similar stick dances are done all over the north of the Iberian peninsula, from Catalonia to Castile (not Galicia so far as I know) and there is a superficial resemblance to Morris double stick dances. Again on Youtube, look "Ball de Bastons" or "Muelas del Pan" and you'll see examples. The dancers wear bells and the music is by bagpipe, pipe and tabor and sometimes drum. Although you can look at the dances and say they look a bit like Morris, it is impossible to find a clear audit trail from one to the other.

The masking tradition is a midwinter thing, in both Portugal and north-western Spain and is usually one person from the village who dresses up and causes jovial mayhem running through the streets. Try the word Zangarron in Youtube and you'll be well rewarded.

There is a fabulous museum of masks in Braganca, Tras os Montes. See here.

Tradsinger