85 



The island of Lanzerota bore formerly the 

 name of Titeroigotra. On the arrival of the 

 Spaniards, it's inhabitants were distinguished 

 from the other Canarians by marks of greater 

 civilization. Their houses were built with free 

 stone, while the Guanches of Teneriffe, like real 

 troglodytes, dwelt in caverns. At Lanzerota, a 

 very singular custom * prevailed at that time, of 

 which we find no example except among the 

 people of Thibet. A woman had several hus- 

 bands, who alternately enjoyed the prerogatives 

 due to the head of a family. A husband was 

 considered as such only during a lunar revolu- 

 tion, and whilst his rights were exercised by 

 others, he remained classed among the house- 

 hold domestics. It must be regretted, that the 

 missionaries who accompanied Jean de Bethen- 

 court, and who sketched the history of the con- 

 quest of the Canaries, have given us no ampler 

 details on the manners of a people who had such 

 singular customs. In the fifteenth century, the 

 island of Lanzerota contained two small distinct 

 states, divided by a wall ; a kind of monuments 

 which outlive national enmities, and which we 

 find in Scotland, in China, and Peru. 



* Viera, t. i, p. 150, 171, 191. Du Halde, Descrip. of 

 China, t. iv, p. 461. In Thibet, polyandry is nevertheless 

 much less common than is thought, and is blamed by the 

 clergy. Hackman in Pallas, Neue Nordische Beitraege^ 

 B. 3, p. 282. 



