Tribute

High in the Pyrenees is a series of interconnecting blind valleys that constitute the State of Andorra. Because this little (191 square miles) pocket in the mountains between France and Spain has no strategic or economic importance it remains a feudal relic. The 5,200 Catalan-speaking citizens make a hard living by keeping sheep and goats and rolling cheap cigarettes. They rule themselves through a legislative Council General of 24 members and an executive First Syndic. Co-princes of Andorra are the Spanish Bishop of Urgel and the President of France, who, as head of the French Republic, inherits the suzerainty of the 11th-t015th Century Counts of Foix.

Last week the Elders of Andorra hiked over the mountains to France to pay their annual tribute to their French prince. According to laws dating back to 1278, it should have consisted of two of every kind of livestock raised in Andorra. President Lebrun, however, has no place to keep sheep and goats in the Elysee Palace at Paris, so his representative, Prefect Raoul Didkowski of the Lower Pyrenees, instead accepted $25.44.

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