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 giyes 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, cari ; among the Guanches, coran ; 

 king, among the African Mandingoes, monso ; among the 

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

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

 (Vater, Untersuch. ueber Amcrika, 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. 



