THE GUANCHES. 



547 









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Fig.8. 



THE OLD DRAGON-TREE OF OKOTAVA. 



to the historical: In later days Pliny, historian of Poinjjeii, mentions 

 an expedition sent to "the Fortunate Islands," wliich brought back 

 its "golden apples"' (oranges), and alludes to those wonderful dragon 



trees, whose age has been computed by 

 Humboldt as not less than ](»,0()0 to 12,000 

 years. One of these enormous trees stood 

 within recent times at Orotava. It was the 

 largest tree probably in the world, aiul 

 was considered especially sacred. It Avas 

 the meeting place of all the islanders on 

 religious and political occasions. We 

 give a sketch of it, which has been copied 

 from a small original sketch in the museum 

 at Las Palmas, taken before the tree was 

 destroyed in 1808 by a storm. But before 

 this nearly two-thirds of the tree had al- 

 ready been cut 

 down. (Fig.8.) 

 And now for 

 upward of thirteen hundred years after 

 Pliny's account of them these islands are 

 lost to sight, emerging again by their re 

 discovery in the first years of the four- 

 teenth century, when a Nornum of the 

 name of Eethencourt once more visited 

 their shores and took possession of them 

 in the name of the King of Spain. - - - 

 We would draw attention to the pecu- 

 liarly Egyp- 

 tian type of 

 face of one of 



the women given in our sketches. (Fig. 9.) 

 Both these women belong to cave-dwelling 

 families, and thougli neither can be said to 

 be a real Guanche, as none of that race 

 now exist, still it can easily be seen in 

 comparing them that the type has been 

 transmitted in a nnu-h higher degree in 

 the one than in the other. No one with 

 ordinary observation can fail to be struck 

 by the peculiarly "native" gait and ges- 

 ture of the present dwellers in the caves. 

 There is distinctly something nn-European 

 in all their gestures, and they seem to have reverted to the modes 

 of sitting, the expression of face, and possibly the voice of their 

 Guanche ancestors, precisely as in the United States Ave see people 



Fig. 9. 



CAVE-DWELLEIl OF CANARY. 



(Eej'lilinii \yv'-:j 



rig. 10. 



CAVE-DWELLER OF CANARY. 



t Spanish type, j 



