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259 



evil spirits, and had the institution of marriage, and various moral and 

 social observances. We learn that their stature was large, and their frames 

 robust and powerful : their history proves them brave and determined. 

 One of their customs was the preservation of their dead, by means of a 

 process of embalming ; and it is from these mummy relics that our know- 

 ledge of the physical characters of the race is obtained. They deposited 

 the mummies, when dry, in caves in the sides of the mountains, placing 

 them erect upon their feet, the chiefs having staffs in their hands, and a 

 vessel of milk standing by them : the bodies were decorated with small 

 laces, from which were suspended little discs of baked clay, and also with 

 strings of coral. M. Golberry, who accurately investigated the mode in 

 which these mummies were prepared, describes one, which he selected 

 from many others, in the mummy-caves at Teneriffe, as having long, 

 black hair : the skin was dry, flexible, and of a dark-brown colour ; the 

 back and chest were covered with hair, and the inside was filled with a 

 kind of grain, resembling rice ; the body was wrapped in bandages of 

 goat's skin. The complete exsiccation of these mummies is surprising. 



One, described by Blumenbach, appa- 

 rently that of a female, weighed only 

 seven pounds and a half, although all 

 the fleshy parts and the viscera were 

 preserved. The entire head of this 

 specimen is figured in the Decades, 

 from which a copy (fig. 200) is here 

 given. It closely resembles the head 

 of an ancient Egyptian. 



The time when, and the circum- 

 stances under which the Guanches 

 separated from the Atlantic Berber 

 race, traversed the intervening sea, 

 and peopled the Canary Isles, are 

 alike unknown ; but that they were a 

 Berber offset, is sufficiently proved by a comparison of the remains of 

 their language with that of the latter people. 



200 



Head of Guanche. 



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MALAYS PROPER. India, according to Prichard (Disp. inaugur. de 

 Variet. p. 85), is inhabited by a mixed race ; consisting of the aborigines, 

 and of others, whom the pursuits of war and conquest have at various times 

 brought there : among these latter are to be enumerated the Mongoles, 

 who, at a comparatively recent period, entered and conquered the country. 



