C A N A R Y I S L A N D S . 65 



Early the next morning I pursued my way nearly a 

 league, at the northward, to El Baranco de Herque, where 

 I vTsited one of the sepulchral caverns of the Guanches. It 

 is entered by two comparatively small openings of the rocks, 

 leading to a large, dark and gloomy vault, formed by nature, 

 which formerly contained an immense number of mummies. 



The history of the antiques of these islands is involved 

 in great obscurity, and their existence is best proved by the 

 remains of their dead ; for their posterity is nearly, if not 

 entirely extinct. '' The manner of embalming their dead 

 is not explicitly illustrated, but apparently the brain and 

 intestines were completely removed, after which it is said 

 the body was washed with an infusion of pine bark. Next, 

 it was anointed with butter or warm grease, which had 

 been boiled with such penetrating and odoriferous herbs 

 as were peculiar to the islands, and then it was exposed to 

 the sun. Being well dried, the same operations were re- 

 peated, and also subsequent drying, until the body was 

 completely impregnated with the aromatic unguent. When 

 reduced to very inconsiderable weight, the process was 

 deemed complete, and the deceased was wrapped in an 

 envelope, consisting of three successive layers of bandages 

 of tanned goat-skin, about three inches broad." Bodies 

 thus embalmed were carried to caves in the mountains, 

 and then placed upright in niches, or laid out on square 

 tables of stone. They appear to have selected for this pur- 

 pose, the most precipitous and inaccessible places that they 

 *6 



