Oct. 26, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



4?7 



tants of the Canary Islands? Many have been the answers. 

 Naturally they have been referred to the lost ten tribes. 

 They are Assyrians, some of those who built the 

 Tower of Babel. They are Jews specially banished 

 to these Atlantic Islands for the purpose of being con- 

 verted to Christianity. They are exiles from Africa, 

 banished thence by the Romans, who cut out their 

 tongues for blaspheming their gods — an explanation 

 given as late as 15 19, by one Thomas Nicols, who lived 

 for seven years in the islands some thirty years after the 

 conquest, and which is singularly enough mentioned by 

 the Bethencourt chaplains as a tradition of the origin of 

 the Gomeros. " This country is inhabited by a tall 

 people, who speak the most remarkable of all languages 



beyond the Atlas Mountains, and it may be suggested 

 that members of this tribe, being the principal colonists, 

 possibly named the whole group, and that consequently 

 the inhabitants of the other islands were, for some time, 

 called by tribal names, many of which survive to the 

 present day. Mrs. Stone, in her " Tenerife and its Six 

 Satellites," goes carefully into this subject of the names. 

 She says, " Various are the constructions put upon 

 these names, and the old names and modern are mixed 

 in a manner difficult to unravel. Majo, which is said to 

 be the ancient name of the people of Fuerteventura, has 

 been converted into Majorero by the Spaniards, who also 

 try to explain that Majo comes from a ' shoe,' referring 

 to the curious foot-coverings of the natives. This is a 



Head of Guanche Mummy. 



of these islands, and speak with their lips, as if they had 

 no tongues; and they have a tradition that a great 

 prince, for no fault of theirs, caused them to be banished 

 and had their tongues cut out ; and, judging by the way 

 they speak, one could well believe it." 



There can be no doubt that the ancient inhabitants 

 were highly civilised. Their customs, their habits, their 

 traits, their laws, all indicate a civilisation that could not 

 have sprung from a savage race, but must have been the 

 gradual growth of ages. 



The generally accepted opinion is that the natives 

 found here at the conquest came from the neighbouring 

 coast of Africa, and that their language and customs have 

 affinity with those of the Berbers and Arabs. "We know 

 from Pliny's account of the travels of Suetonius Paulinus 

 that there was a tribe called Canarii inhabiting a forest 



poor explanation, for the shoes are similar to those worn 

 in other islands. It is more likely to be from Majorata, 

 the supposed ancient name of the island. Conejo, in 

 like manner, is explained as a Spanish word, the inhabi- 

 tants of Lanzarote being now called Conejeros, because of 

 the number of rabbits in the island. It seems curious, 

 it this explanation be true, that the Palmeros had not 

 this name, as rabbits are said to be so plentiful in Palma. 

 Titre-roygatra, which was the ancient name of Lanzarote, 

 certainly does not seem to have any connection with 

 Conejo. The names belonging to Tenerife admit of a 

 tribal origin. Palma has quite lost its name of Bena- 

 hoare, or Benehoave, and the present race are called 

 Palmeros. As to Gomera, no one attempts an explana- 

 tion, unless it be that it comes from Gumero, or Gomerita, 

 a tribe mentioned by Leo Africanus as inhabiting the 



