igoo-i.] Spanish Documents Relative to the Canary Islands. 39 



A peculiar combination, but within the limits of the Irish dictionary, 

 translates the Guanche omanamastuca, bright red ; it is omh-aineamh- 

 dathach, which means " blood stain coloured." Some very out-of-the- 

 way epithets are well preserved. Thus babilon is the nickname given 

 by the inhabitants of other islands to a boy of Tenerife ; and it is the 

 Irish buibiollan, a coxcomb, which leads one to infer that the gilded 

 youth of Tenerife prided themselves upon their personal appearance. 

 The son of a plebeian was achicasna, the Welsh gwesin ; a brave man 

 was altaha, the Irish lath or anthaa, the Irish niadh ; an idler, 

 debase, was the I. tainiheach ; a vestal virgin, harmaguade, was the 

 I. er-maighdean, noble virgin ; a tall vulgar person, tamarco, was either 

 the I. tamlianach, or the Welsh amrosgo, or both ; and a tall slender 

 man, tigalate, was the I. teircfheolach. 



Either the Guanches lost the sound of r in many words, or their 

 reporters omitted to notice it, while, in other cases they intruded that 

 sound,* as in tacerquen compared with the Gaelic deasguin. Among the 

 botanical names of the Guanches that are determined, which are few, 

 occurs that of the Cytisus, which is tagasaste ; now tragasaste ^^owX*^ 

 not be exactly the same as ddrewgoed, the Welsh name of a Cytisus, 

 the laburnum, but it is not far from it. Again faita, treason, leaves out 

 the r of the Welsh brad. A peculiar variation is found in the word 

 which denotes " rod fishing from the shore " ; jilmero is the Guanche 

 form, and genweirio, the Welsh. Yet they are plainly the same word. 

 In Gomera, Dr. Bethencourt found the term parano, which he defines, 

 " especie de armazon o canizo que se pone sobre el hogar para curar el 

 queso, etc.," i.e., a stand or hurdle to place on the hearth for curing 

 cheese, etc. This is just the Irish brannra, a stand, a prop, support, 

 doubtless of the same ancient pattern in the old Guanche homes of 

 Gomera, and in the farm houses of the Green Isle. The words 

 signifying man are a fair indication of relationship. Of these, antraha 

 answers to the Irish anra, common people ; coran, to the Welsh gwr ; 

 cotan, to the I. cathaidhe, warrior ; guamf, to the Welsh ymbaffiwr, 

 fighter ; htago, Guanche, to the I. niogh, man ; mahey, hero, to the 

 I. inogan ; teseique, great man, to the \. toiseach ; and tingalate, tall 

 thin person, to the I. tan-cleith. 



The writer has placed the botanical names in a separate vocabulary, 

 both because they constitute a special study, and because of the indeter- 

 minateness of most of them, which are simply called, a plant, a herb, 

 a bush, a tree. Already the Canary Island tagasaste, Cytisus, has been 

 compared with the Welsh ddrewgoed. The two words chibusco and 

 chibusquera, a berry and the plant that bears it, can hardly be other 



