Four years after Iztueta published his work, King Ferdinand VII and his wife Marie-Amelie of Saxony visited Gipuzkoa, where they witnessed a brokel-dantza performance as part of the events organised in their honour. Juan Antonio Urbeltz has discovered a document which describes that performance in detail The makila handiena is described as follows:

“After this dance another begins with long sticks (Maquilla aundiac), with the leader in front as before; the others dance and dispute by landing furious blows in time with the music, urging one another on with shouts until victory is celebrated and the sticks are dropped ...”

A programme announcing a dance performance in Bilbao in 1858 by the brokel-dantza group directed by José Antonio Olano mentions the zortziko and stick dances one after the other on the list, but describes them as two different dances.

“7. The much lauded Zorcico de Cantones, with three groups forming before the audience.
8. Sundry battle moves with long sticks.”

A comparison between this list and that of Iztueta reveals that the zortziko presented here before the stick dance is the “four groups” zortziko. Indeed, the makila handiena as it has come down to us is associated with this zortziko.

In the description of the brokel-dantza by José Antonio Azpiazu, written in 1858, the makila handiena is described as follows:

"Long stocks or clubs. This dance is the most expressive and serious, and the most terrible of all: with a tumultuous, accelerated rhythm, it shuns the buckler and sword and resorts to big sticks or clubs, as was the custom in cases of extreme need among the ancient warriors of the Basque lands. The number and variety of the changes involved reveals the skill with which this instrument and the change from one weapon to another are handled: the dancers act as if they were in the heat of battle and display their decisiveness and enthusiasm in defence of their cause, presenting a rough but impressive spectacle”.

See Brokel-dantza - History