MIXED DESCEXDASTS. 
125 
The greater attention wo direct to the study of languages 
in a philosophical point of view, the more we must observe 
t hat no one of them is entirely distinct. The language of the 
Guanches would appear still less so, had we any data re- 
specting its mechanism and grammatical construction ; two 
elements more important than the form of words, and the 
identity of sounds. It is the same with certain idioms, as 
with those organized beings that seem to shrink from all 
classification in the series of natural families. Their isolated 
state is merely apparent ; for it ceases when, on embracing a 
greater number of objects, we come to discover tbe interme- 
diate links. Those learned enquirers who trace Egyptians 
wherever there are mummies, hieroglyphics, or pyramids, 
ivill imagine perhaps that the race of Typhon Mas united to 
I ho Guanches by the Berbers, real Atlantes, to whom belong 
the Tibboes and the Tuarycks of the desert: but this hypo- 
thesis is supported by no analogy between the Berberic and 
Coptic languages, which are justly considered as remnants of 
the ancient Egyptian. 
The people who have succeeded the Guanches are de- 
scended from the Spaniards, and in a more remote degree 
from tho Normans. Though these two races have been 
exposed during three centuries past to the same climate, the 
latter is distinguished by tho fairer complexion. Tho de- 
scendants of the Normans inhabit tbe valley of Tcganana, 
betM'een Punta de Naga and Punta de Hidalgo. The names 
of Grandville and Dampierre are still pretty common in this 
district. The Canarians arc a moral, sober, and religious 
people, of a less industrious character at home than in foreign 
countries. A roving and enterprising disposit ion leads these 
islanders, like the Biscayans and Catalonians, to the Philip- 
pines, to the Padrone Islands, to America, and "wherever 
there are Spanish settlements, from Chile and La Plata to 
New Mexico. To them M"e are in a great measure indebted 
for the progress of agriculture in those colonies. The whole 
archipelago does not contain 100,030 inhabitants, and the 
Isleiios are perhaps more numerous in the new continent 
than in their own country. 
who speak the Berberic language are not all of the same race ; and the 
description which Scylax gives, in his Periplus, of the inhabitants of 
Cerne, a shepherd people of tall stature and long hair, reminds us of the 
features which characterize the Canarian Guanches. 
