Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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I doubt whether this analogy is a proof of a common origin; but it
is an indication of the ancient connexion between the Guanches and
Berbers, a tribe of mountaineers, in which the ancient Numidians,
Getuli, and Garamanti are confounded, and who extend themselves
from the eastern extremity of Atlas by Harutsh and Fezzan, as far
as the oasis of Siwah and Augela. The natives of the Canary Islands
called themselves Guanches, from guan, man; as the Tonguese call
themselves bye, and tongui, 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 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.)
The greater attention we direct 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 respecting 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 the intermediate
links. Those learned enquirers who trace Egyptians wherever there
are mummies, hieroglyphics, or pyramids, will imagine perhaps that
the race of Typhon was united to the Guanches by the Berbers, real
Atlantes, to whom belong the Tibboes and the Tuarycks of the
desert: but this hypothesis 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 descended from the
Spaniards, and in a more remote degree from the Normans. Though
these two races have been exposed during three centuries past to
the same climate, the latter is distinguished by the fairer
complexion. The descendants of the Normans inhabit the valley of
Teganana, between Punta de Naga and Punta de Hidalgo. The names of
Grandville and Dampierre are still pretty common in this district.
The Canarians are a moral, sober, and religious people, of a less
industrious character at home than in foreign countries. A roving
and enterprising disposition leads these islanders, like the
Biscayans and Catalonians, to the Philippines, to the Ladrone
Islands, to America, and wherever there are Spanish settlements,
from Chile and La Plata to New Mexico. To them we are in a great
measure indebted for the progress of agriculture in those colonies.
The whole archipelago does not contain 160,030 inhabitants, and the
Islenos are perhaps more numerous in the new continent than in
their own country.
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