Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/88

 62 WEST AFEICA. The islanders were unacquainted with the metallurgic art, and whatever Azurara may say to the contrary, no iron implements, gold or silver ornaments, have been found amongst them. Nevertheless, the solid construction of the burial-places in Teneriffe, the skilful disposition of the stones in the buildings of Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote, the convenient arrangement of the rooms in their dwellings, their paintings in ochre, all attest the high degree of civilisation reached by them in the pre-historic period. The chaplains associated with Bethencourt's expedition have left on record that in Fuerteventura they saw " the strongest castles that could be found anywhere." The idols, figures, and ornaments designed on the vases bear a great resemblance to the types presented on the Egyptian monuments. Inscriptions in characters like those of the Libyan alphabet have even been found at the very extremity of the archipelago, in the Belmaco grotto, Palma, on a wall on the east side of Hierro, and in Gran Canaria. Proof is at least thus afforded that relations existed between the Berber peoples of the mainland and the islanders, although on the arrival of Bethencourt the latter no longer possessed boats, having in this respect apparentlj^ deteriorated. These inscriptions also add great probability to the hypothesis that the natives were of Arabo-Berber origin, all the more that the w^ords of various dialects collected by Webb and Berthelot, to the number of about a thousand, and the proper names preserved by historians, are evidently Berber, also presenting some analogies with Arabic. Benehoare, the old name of Palma, seems obviously identical with that of the powerful Beni- Hawara tribe, while the Bimbashos of Hierro recall the Ben-Bashirs. Teneriffe also supplies many proper names beginning with the article al or with the substantive hen of the Semitic language. Most ethnologists are of accord in regarding the extinct Canarians as " one of the noblest branches of the Berber race," although some writers have looked on them as Kelts, Basques, or even Vandals, on this ground claiming the archipelago as a future province of the Germanic empire. The study of the skulls and bones undertaken by modern anthropologists, while demonstrating the diversity of races in the archipelago, still confirms the first hypothesis regarding the eastern origin of a large number of the inhabitants. In J^uerteventura, Hierro, Palma, and other places, the cranial type is essentially Syro-Arab, the identity being almost absolute between these Canarians, the Algerian Arabs, and the fellahin of Egj'pt. All the former inhabitants are usually spoken of under the collective name of Guanches, a term which, under the forms of Yincheni and Guanchinet, seems to have properly belonged to the Teneriffe islanders alone. Like hundreds of other racial names, it is said to have meant "men," "people," the little Guanche race constituting in their own eyes all mankind. According to contemporary evidence, these Berbers, some fair, some brown, but all with long head and limbs, were distinguished from the Arabs by a less robust body, less elongated features, less retreating brow, a broader and shorter nose, and thicker lips. They had large black eyes, thick eyebrows, fine hair, smooth or undulating, the whole expression