TENERIFFE. 3 



a dilapidated town, thoroughly Spanish in its architecture, with 

 some fine houses in it in a ruinous condition. The central square 

 of the town was overgrown with weeds, and its streets mostly 

 covered with grass ; but so are many in the capital, Santa Cruz, 

 itself. On the way, droves of mules, ponies, and donkeys were 

 passed, laden with country produce. The countrymen wear a 

 peculiar dress, black trousers reaching only to the knee, and an 

 ordinary blanket of the natural colour of the wool, drawn into 

 pleats at one end to go round the neck, and worn over the 

 shoulders as a cloak. If the blanket were dyed of some dark or 

 bright tint the dress would not look very remarkable ; but its 

 dirty-white colour has a strange appearance. The countrywomen 

 have very fine figures and are most of them very handsome. 

 We passed through another town where a private collector has 

 a museum containing a number of mummies, skulls, and relics of 

 the Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of the Canaries. The 

 " gabinete," the owner of which was absent, was in a somewhat 

 decayed condition, and was a sort of general collection of 

 curiosities, a survival of the old Earitatenkammer, which is the 

 parent of modern more select collections, just as the West 

 African fetisch house may be regarded as the primitive and 

 savage representative of the Earitatenkammer. Man seems to 

 be almost the only mammal that collects and stores uneatable 

 objects. Amongst birds, on the other hand, the collecting 

 instinct is widely spread, as witness magpies and Bower-birds,* 

 and even Penguins, one of which collects variously- coloured 

 pebbles. It will be a great pity if the Guanche remains, con- 

 tained in the Teneriffe Gabinete, do not reach some good 

 European museum. 



From the neighbourhood of this second town was obtained 

 the first view of the far-famed Peak, " Pico de Teyde." The 

 middle part of the mountain was concealed by a dense bank of 

 white clouds, the condensed vapour of the trade wind. Beneath, 

 a broad valley stretching down to the bright blue sea, with its 

 snow-white edging of surf, was thrown partly into deep shadow 

 by the cloud-bank, partly lit up by the bright hot sun. The sun 



* 0. Beccari, " Le Capanne ed i Giardini del Amblyornis inornata" 

 Ann. del Mm Civ. di St. Nat. di Genova, Vol. IX, 1876-7. 



B2 



