igoo-i.] Spanish Documents Relative to the Canary Islands. 35 



power. Two of the inscriptions published by M. O'Shea, President 

 of the Biarritz Association, in its " Bulletin Mensuel " of December, 

 1898, namely, Nos. XX. and XXII., make mention of one Lamia, 

 a Roman functionary. In 23 B.C., ^Elius Lamia and L. Apronius were 

 proconsuls in Africa (Tacitus, Annales, IV., 13); and the death of 

 Lamia is noted as occurring in ^^ A.D., in Lib. VI., 27, of the same 

 historian. But an yElius Lamia fought against the Cantabrians, as 

 lieutenant of Augustus (Horace, Odes, III., 17). L. yElius Lamia 

 again was consul in the year 3 A.D. ; and L. vElius Plautius Lamia was 

 suffragan with Domitian in the year 80 (Fasti Consulares). The 

 Canary Islands were discovered by the Romans before 78 B.C., for 

 Sertorius had the idea of passing his last days in them (Plutarch, Life 

 of Sertorius). While it is hard to decide who the Lamia was that the 

 Hierro inscriptions celebrate, it is probable that his date lies between 

 23 B.C. and 80 A.D. At least three generations of Iberic kings 

 preceded his advent to the island, thus giving a pre-Christian era for 

 the settlement of the Canaries from Africa. 



The spoken language, as represented by the vocabularies which 

 Dr. Bethencourt has, the writer thinks, unduly disparaged, supports, to 

 a certain extent, the written evidence for an Iberic immigration. 

 Among the words found in Fuerteventura occurs sorrocloco, which 

 Dr. Bethencourt translates— " consistia en acostarse el marido durante 

 los dias que lo estuviera su muger durante el puerperio, con iguales 

 atenciones." This is " la couvade" of the Basques, which M. Francisque 

 Michel thus describes : " les femmes se levent immediatement apres 

 leurs couches, et vaquent aux soins du menage, pendant que leur mari 

 se met au lit, prend la tendre creature avec lui, et recoit ainsi les 

 conpliments des voisins " (Le Pays Basque, p. 201). This custom is 

 mentioned by Apollonius Rhodius, the author of " The Argonauts," 

 as peculiar to the Tibareni of north-eastern Asia Minor ; Diodorus 

 Siculus attributes it to the Corsicans ; Strabo, to the Iberians of Spain ; 

 Marco Polo, to an aboriginal population of China, identified with the 

 Miau-tze, whence Butler in his Hudibras, writes : 



" For though Chinese go to bed, 

 And lie in, in their ladies' stead"; 



and Du Tertre and Dobrizhofer found it among the Caribs of the West 

 Indies and the Abipones of the Gran Chaco in South America. The 

 whole subject is discussed by the late Max Miiller, in his essay on 

 " Manners and Customs," in the second volume of Chips from a 

 German Workshop. The writer, though allowed by competent 



