285 



guese call themselves bye and donki, which have 

 the same signification as guan. Besides, the 

 nations who speak the Berberic language are 

 not all of the same race ; and the description, 

 which Scylax gives in his Periplus of the inha- 

 bitants of Cerne, a shepherd people of a tall 

 stature and long hair, reminds us of the features 

 which characterise the Canary Guanches. 



The greater attention we give to the study of 

 languages in a philosophical point of view, the 

 more we must observe, that no one of them is 

 entirely distinct; the language of the Guanches * 

 would appear still less so, had we any data re- 

 specting it's mechanism and grammatical con- 

 struction ; two elements more important than 

 the form of words, and the identity of sounds * 

 It is the same with certains idioms, as with those 

 organized beings, that seem to shrink from all 

 classification in the series of natural families. 



* According to the researches of Mr. Vater, the Guanche 

 language offers the following analogies with the languages of 

 nations very remote from each other : dog among the Ame- 

 rican Hurons, aguienon ; among the Guanches, aguyan ; man, 

 among the Peruvians, cart; among the Guanches, coran ; 

 king, among the African Mandingoes, ?nonso; among the 

 Guanches, monsey. The name of the island of Gomera is 

 found in that of Gomer, which designates a tribe of Berbers 

 (Vater, Untersuch. ueber Amerika, p. 170). The Guanche 

 words Alcorac, God, and almogaron, temple, seem to be of 

 Arabic origin ; at least in the latter tongue almoharram sig- 

 nifies sacred. 



