4 04 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 19, il 



THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE 

 CANARY ISLANDS. 



A Paper read by Mr. J. Harris Stone, M.A., before 

 the Anthropological Section of the British 

 Association. 



(Continued from page 381.^ 

 T N Gran Canaria I saw a number of what, for want of 

 a better name, may be called seals, some of which are 

 shown in fig. 4. Their purpose is unknown. They 

 are made of baked pottery and deeply marked in various 

 patterns. Some are circular, others square and triangular, 

 varying in size from one inch to four. Perhaps a more 

 realistic description of them would be to say that they 

 are like small butterprints, as used at the present day. 

 Somewhat similar articles are found in Egypt, whose use, 

 like these Guanche things, is also unknown. 



The natives were moderately expert in making and 

 baking vessels of pottery which were of simple, but what 

 would now be termed artistic shapes, and marked, like 

 those in figs. 5 and 6, with various patterns. 



Some few stones with what are said to be inscriptions 

 have been found, but none yet have been deciphered. 

 It is thought that some of the characters are Phoenician. 

 One of these stones is said to be bilingual, being graven 

 in the same character as the Tougga stone, with a trans- 

 lation in Punic letters, which would make the date not 

 later than the second century B.C. 



Their staple food was go/to, roasted grains ground to 

 powder, and eaten mixed with water. Several gofio 

 hand-mills have been found, both rotatory, and those 

 with a simple backward and forward movement, a round 

 stone being rolled in a narrow trench cut in another ob- 

 long stone. They obtained fire by the friction of wood, 

 and I saw in Gran Canaria a piece of wood about eight 

 or nine inches in length scooped out by friction, and a 

 pointed stick which was found by it. 



They shaved with sharp stones, and according to 

 Galindo, when they were troubled with acute pains they 

 drew blood from the part affected with lancets made of 

 tabonas or sharp stones. 



The natives were great wrestlers, and exhibitions of 

 wrestling, and fighting duels seem to have been of fre- 

 quent occurrence. These spectacles were considered to 

 make a great impression on the minds of the youth, 

 exciting them to healthy emulation and gallant deeds. 

 A famous wrestler called Adargoma, was captured and 

 taken to Spain, where a celebrated wrestler of that 

 country challenged him to a trial of skill. Adargoma 

 accepted the Spaniard's challenge, and said to him, 

 " Brother, since we are to wrestle, we had better first 

 have a drink together," then taking a glass of wine in his 

 hand, he said to the Spaniard, "If you can, with both 

 your hands, prevent my carrying this glass of wine to 

 my mouth, and drinking it, or cause me to spill one drop 

 of it, then we will wrestle together, but if you cannot do 

 this, I would advise you to return home." Then drink- 

 ing off the wine in spite of the other's utmost efforts to 

 prevent him, the Spaniard, amazed at the Canarian's 

 prodigious strength, prudently took his advice and 

 sneaked off. 



Their religion had more of a spiritual than material 

 character. They had no idols. 



In Palma ihe natives held the sun and moon in great 

 veneration ; keeping an exact account of time in order to 

 know when it would be new or full moon, and for re- 

 cording their days of devotion. They seem to have wor- 



shipped one God in the heavens who was greater 

 than all. 



In Tenerife the natives adored one God, whom they 

 worshipped by the names Achguarergenan, Achoran, 

 and Achaman, which signify the Sustainer of the Heavens 

 and the Earth. He was also called by other names, the 

 Great, the Sublime, and the Sustainer of all. 



A favourite method of disposing of the dead was to 

 lay them on the rough volcanic ground near the sea, and 

 cover them with pieces of lava. Two of these cemeteries 

 I have explored in Gran Canaria. There possibly may 

 be more than these two ancient burying-places, and if so, 

 it is to be hoped that other travellers will pay parti- 

 cular attention to them. Those I have examined 

 are at Agaete and on the Isleta. Figure 7 is from a 

 photograph of the Isleta cemetery looking towards Con- 

 fital Bay. These cemeteries agree exactly in situation 

 and character of the ground. The antiguos Canarios 

 must have liked to be buried close to the sea. The choice 

 of this unpromising-looking ground, composed entirely 

 of the roughest of rough stones found in a volcanic 

 country, without a particle of mould, might perhaps be 

 due to the singularity of the spot, to the great difference 

 existing between it and the neighbouring country. These 

 outbursts of past volcanic fury not unlikely assumed 

 religious importance in their eyes. It may of course 

 be urged that, owing to the value of pasture land, such 

 would not have been used for burial purposes, or that, 

 the ancient inhabitants possessing no digging tools, 

 this lava-block-covered land afforded the easiest mode of 

 burial for the mass of the population. The first theory 

 for the origin of these singularly placed cemeteries is 

 that which I think most accords with what we know of 

 the race. There is one difference I should note between 

 the cemetery at Agaete and that on the Isleta. The 

 covering mounds of stone at Agaete over the largest 

 graves contain red stones. I noticed none on the Isleta 

 graves. It would be interesting to know who were the 

 persons dignified by having red stones in their burial 

 piles, and why in regard to this custom the Canarios oi 

 the north differ from those of the west. 



The mounds are of various sizes and shapes, the only 

 uniformity being that the sides, for a height of about 4 

 feet, are wall-like, composed of large cinder stones, whose 

 more or less flat surfaces are carefully ranged upon the 

 exterior. The top is formed by smaller stones thrown 

 on and allowed to settle in any order, but naturally 

 assuming more or less of a flatfish pyramidal shape. 



On the Isleta two partially dismantled graves were 

 measured. One was chosen for its unimportant appear- 

 ance, and the other because it was one of the, if not the, 

 largest on the ground. The former was 15 inches wide 

 and just 1 foot below the level of the ground, the topping 

 stones which covered in the body resting their ends on 

 the ground on either side. Its length was 6 feet 6 inches, 

 and it was rudely squared at the ends. The other grave 

 had been covered by a large, circular mound, and lay 

 due north and south. The stones had been pulled down 

 at the north end exposing the grave, from which the 

 skull had been taken, though there remained the ribs, 

 vertebrae, femurs, and a few small bones, all of which, 

 from their great size and very marked eminences for the 

 attachment of muscles, showed that the man had been 

 tall, well-built, and very powerful. 



The inside of the grave formed a chamber, lined 

 with immense pieces of flat lava stones, and roofed with 

 others of a concave shape. The grave was therefore 



