Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/46

 30 WEST AFEICA. to the whole archipelago, while Fayal was more specially named "New Flanders." In 1622 there still survived some Belgian families with the characteristic features of their race ; but they had ceased to speak Flemish, and had even changed their patronymic names into Portuguese forms. Thus the Van der Haegens, great land- owners in San-Jorge, assumed the familiar Portuguese appellation of Da Silva. Many shipwrecked mariners of other nations also became merged in the general population, in which the Portuguese enjoy such a decided predominance that all these foreign elements may safely be neglected. But whence comes the great bulk of these Portuguese themselves ? Little can be gleaned on this point from official documents, or the conflicting evidence of physical types, dialects, popular songs, local usages, and the like. Some authori- ties bring the San-Miguel islanders from the province of Minho, in North Portugal, others from Algarve, in the extreme south. In any case the Azorians are far from presenting a uniform type, the greatest variety being presented by the different communities throughout the archipelago. They are generally under- sized, with rather coarse features, large mouth, thick lips, ill- shaped nose, and cranial capacity decidedly inferior to that of the average European, although the Azorians are said by some authorities to hold their own in science and literature with their continental fellow-countrymen. In the form of the head and physical charac- teristics they forcibly recall the " Celtic " tj^pe of Auvergne and Brittany as described by Broca and other French anthropologists. By a curious coincidence, the village of San- Miguel, noted for a French pronunciation of certain syllables, also bears the name of Bretanha, like the Armorican peninsula. On the other hand the Santa-Maria dialect is distinguished beyond all others for its numerous archaic expressions. Although by no means of a fanatical disposition, the Azorians are very religious, the frequent earthquakes tending to foster that sentiment of fear which theologians hold to be " the beginning of wisdom." At every shock the natives rush for safety to the churches, and it is related that on one occasion after an agrarian rising, an earthquake having overthrown some houses in the village of Povoa9ao, the terrified people immediately fell on their knees with loud cries of repentance and supplications to the landowners for pardon. The miraculous images are visited by countless pilgrims, and their shrines enriched with offerings. An Ecce Homo in the Ponta-Delgada convent is specially renowned for its wonder-working powers not only throughout the archipelago, but even in Portugal and Brazil. But despite their religious fervour, there is a less variety of supersti- tions among them than in the mother- country, which may be due to a less vivid imagination produced by their monotonous lives, uneventful history, poor surround- ings, and absence of ancient monuments. Rapid intellectual changes are now also taking place in this hitherto secluded community, thanks to the long voyages made by the emigrants and those engaged in the whale fisheries. Thousands have already visited Portugal, Brazil, the West Indies, the Sandwich Islands, and the Arctic Seas, and no other insular population probably contains so large a proportion of men who have made the