544 



THE GUANCHES. 



and xjrogiiatliic type, two words describing the above properties. Now, 

 these Brachyeeplialic types of the human race are those that have super- 

 seded the weaker race almost all over Europe, and it is from these tliat 

 the great Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and, generally speaking, Teu- 

 tonic and Latin races have come. Of course, there existed intermediary 

 types, brought about by intermarriage; but these are few, and in the 

 eternal process of evolution the stronger naturally jirevailed. 



The nuimmified head, of which we give a sketch, is that of an ancient 

 Iberian. It is quite impossible to assign a date to any of these Guanche 

 mummies, for they have no accomi^anyiug writing of any kind, and 

 have left no record behind them. (Fig. 4.) 



The mummies of the Canary Islands present some verj^ interesting 

 peculiarities, and have been found in great numbers in the caves that 

 have been used indifferently as places of sepulture and as the abodes 

 of the living. The art of embalming must have been learned from stray 

 Egyptians or Phojnicians, and there is a legend 

 that in the thirteenth century before Christ 

 the then Egyptian ruler sent a colony to these 

 islands, who settled here. The Guanche mum- 

 mies, however, differ from the Egyi^tian in sev- 

 eral respects. The bodies were sewn up in many 

 folds of goatskin (twenty to twenty-five in some 

 cases), and the legs were sometimes bent back 

 and doubled onto the breast. The bodies, after 

 a little preparation, were sun-baked, and were 

 then sewn up with lumps of balsam laid in the 

 folds. They have been found in a perfect state 

 of preservation, though many can not be less 

 Up to what date the Guaiiches continued to 

 mummify their dead it is difticult to say, but there is reason to sup- 

 pose that the practice has been extended here far longer than any- 

 where else in the world. All their dead were not, however, mummified. 

 The lower orders of the people were buried in cairns, the body laid 

 on a heap of lava and covered over with stones. Thousands of these 

 have been found, and have afforded most valuable anthropometrical 

 information. 



Our sketch shows the mummy of a young woman of the early type, 

 long headed, and with nonprojecting jaw. She must have been about 

 5 feet 1 inch, and apparently in perfect proportion. She was a mother, 

 and her infant baby was found in the case with her, and still lies near 

 her. The covering skins have been opened for examination. (Fig. 5.) 



We must picture to ourselves the ancient Iberians slowly giving up 

 cannibalism, slowly learning to use fire, which the volcanoes of these 

 islands, that were active until recent days, must have early taught them 

 to apply to some luirpose; or we must think of them as struggling with 

 gigantic animals, which by constant warfare through thousands, possi- 



Fig.4. 



HEAD OF A GUANCHE MUMMY. 



than 3,000 years old. 



