When in the XIV century the dark-skinned black-haired inhabitants of the Mediterranean reached the Canary Islands on their ships, blue-eyed giants of the Guanche tribe in red-orange goat skins met them on the coast. They did not speak, but whistled in an unfamiliar language - a very peculiar communication system. The blond islanders did not build boats or ships and never went to sea. The Europeans expected to meet here with the African population, but they encountered people of the Caucasian type, reminiscent of the Swedes and Pomor Slavs living in northern Europe with white skin, gray or blue eyes, and flax, red or chestnut hair.
The islanders, as if by selection, were tall enough, possessed remarkable strength and adequately resisted the armed conquerors. Their endurance was legendary throughout Europe. Travelers said that the Canary natives run with the speed of a horse and jump over deep chasms. Their women are so brave and strong that they can handle armed soldiers. Until now, no one knows where these first settlers came from three thousand years ago.
The word "Guanches" means "children of the volcano", and in ancient legends you can find mentions that the people of the tribe came out of the bowels of Teide - the fire-breathing mountain of Tenerife, which is the highest volcano in the Canary Islands.
Volcano teide
Perhaps this is the only people in the world that did not even have a primitive fleet at the time of the arrival of the Europeans. At the same time, they were excellent swimmers and could swim from one island of the archipelago to another, like amphibians. The lack of boats led to the complete isolation of the tribes on the islands, each island lived on its own until the 15th century. As a result, the natives of different islands had different languages, different gods and different levels of social development. In Tenerife, the Guanches lived, in Gran Canaria - the Canarias (canarii), in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura - the majos (majos), on La Palma - the benahorite or auarita, on El Hierro - bimbache, on La Homere - Homerites (gomerita or gomero).
The Guanches had a clear idea of the structure of the world, believing that God created people from earth and water, men and women equally. Answering the questions of Europeans about their origin, the Guanches said that they are "children of the Sun":
Promotional video:
Our fathers said that God, having settled us on this island, then forgot about us. But one day he will return with the Sun, which he ordered to be born every morning and which gave birth to us!
The Guanches mostly lived in natural caves and lava tubes, although there were also stone huts on the ground. For example, in Lanzarote there were villages of deep stone houses with a covered vault, and in Gran Canaria, villages of houses on the surface of the earth. Most often, houses were built around sanctuaries. The walls were often decorated with wood or painted. But still, for the most part, the house served only for sleep, and the life of the Guanches took place in the open air.
La Cue Pintada cave - the home of the chief of the Guanche tribe
But despite such a simple life, the Guanches took care of the upbringing of their children. True, the upbringing of the younger generation was understood by the indigenous inhabitants of the islands in a very peculiar way. They sent all young girls to a special institution - Monet, in order to prepare them for marriage. The preparation consisted only in the fact that the girls were fattened up to 100-kilogram weight. More slender brides in the Canary Islands did not enjoy success with grooms.
The Guanche society was divided into nobles, warriors and peasants. Representatives of the higher caste did not have the right to marry with representatives of the lower. If there were no candidates from their class, then they married or married their brothers and sisters. Each island had its own subtleties of family relationships. For example, in Gran Canaria monogamy prevailed, and in Hierro - polygamy, in Lanzarote polyandry was adopted - polyandry: a wife and three husbands, each of whom lived with her for a month. The Canaries used a non-trivial method of punishing crimes. For example, for murder, they sentenced to death not the criminal himself, but someone from his relatives, believing that it is much more difficult for the murderer to lose his wife, father or son than to lose his own life.
The control system on the islands was not complicated, but each island had its own characteristics. The Guanches were ruled by elective rulers - the Mensei. According to the monk de Espinoza, the Tenerife people had a peculiar system of inheritance of power. The power of the menseus passed not from father to son, but to the next brother of the menseus, if any, despite the fact that he had his own children. When he died, the power passed to the next brother, and so on, as long as the brothers remained. Otherwise, power passed to the eldest son of the first ruler. The coronation ceremony of the ruler took place at a council of elders called Tagoror.
Tenerife island
The Chosen One kissed the bone of the oldest ruler of his kind, which was carefully kept in the family, wrapped in his own skin. Then this bone touched the head of the future ruler and the shoulder of everyone who was on the council and they all said: "I swear by this bone about this day when you became great (Agone yacoron ynatzahana Chaconamet)." After that, the people were announced that they had a ruler, which was celebrated with fun and feasts throughout the island at the expense of the elected ruler and his relatives.
Mensey Pelikar
The caste of priests of the Guanches wore robes and hats the same as those of the Babylonians. The high priest in Gran Canaria, who, of course, was also a doctor, and also performed administrative functions, bore the title of Faikan, which, according to the French ethnologist B. Bonet, has a Babylonian sound: in Babylon, Faikan was a civilian, military and religious dignitary in one person.
There are similarities in the rites of the Babylonians and the Guanches. In the Canary Islands, as in ancient Babylon, and in Peru of the Inca era, the brides of the gods, "sacred virgins", were revered. Altars were erected on hills, sacrifices were made here, and the dead were buried in much the same way as in North Africa. The method of embalming coincided with the Egyptian period of the XXI dynasty.
Elliot Smith in the book "Migration of Early Cultures" also points out the surprising similarity of their methods of mummification with the ancient Egyptian:
When a person dies, they save his body in the following way. They take it to a cave, spread it on a flat stone and open it, then take out the insides, wash it with prepared salt water and grease it with a mixture of sheep fat, rotted pine resin, crushed pumice stone and bressos bush. The prepared body is dried in the sun for 15 days and, when it dries up and becomes almost weightless, it is wrapped in sheep skins, tied with leather straps and placed in special grottoes located next to the living quarters. Due to the constant temperature in the caves, the mummies have been perfectly preserved to this day.
Other witnesses of that time add that the Guanches still stuffed bodies with aromatic herbs and incense, and sprinkled the scarlet sap of the "dragon tree", known for its antiseptic effect, before being placed in the grottoes. This method of making mummies is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian and Peruvian. Among the herbs with which the mummies were stuffed were rare, for example, chenopodium ambrosiodes, which was used in mummification by the Peruvian Incas. The Canarian mummies were found to have exactly the same sandals as the Mayan statue in Chichen Itza. Now, some Canary mummies can be seen in the museum of the city of Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife.
Despite some differences between the inhabitants of individual islands, they were all similar to each other, but spoke in different dialects. White natives communicated with each other by whistling - a special lively colloquial speech, thanks to which the Guanches could speak at a distance of 14 kilometers! Being close, they just silently moved their lips and at the same time perfectly understood each other. And these were not some prearranged signals, but a real spoken language, in which one could speak for as long as desired and about anything. Of course, only with each other, and not with the "dumb", according to the islanders, newcomers.
The first seafarers to the Canary Islands were amazed by this language of the white natives. The Norman conqueror Jean de Bettencourt wrote in one of his diaries:
Homer Island is home to tall people who speak the most remarkable of all languages. They speak with their lips as if they have no tongue at all. These people have a legend that they, innocent of anything, were severely punished by some ruler, who ordered them to cut off their tongues and send them to the island. Judging by the way they talk, this legend can be believed.
Among the vast multitude of living and dead languages that have ever existed on the planet, linguists have not found this bird chirp, called "Silvo Homero", not a single "relative." The Guanches disappeared, but their whistle language is still alive, and their descendants - the modern population use it when necessary. They can even whistle, astonishing numerous tourists.
Homer Island
The cultural development on different islands was strikingly different. On the westernmost of the Canary Islands, the threshold of the New World, Hierro (Ferro), scientists have found traces of writing in rock carvings. The researchers compared the found letters with the ancient Libyan, Phoenician and Numidian writing. Some similarities were found with the writing of the Tuareg - no less mysterious tribe of the Sahara desert. It was not possible to decipher these marks because too few samples were found.
Hierro Island
It is very bold to assume that this is the writing of the Guanches, since at the time of the discovery of this tribe by Europeans, the white natives were at the Neolithic stage of development, and the writing arose later - during the pre-civilization period. Who left these inscriptions? If you find the answer to this question, it will become clear where the Guanches came from in the Canary Islands. Perhaps their ancestors were representatives of a highly developed civilization that perished, which completely changed the life of the Guanches - they not only stopped in development, but also lost valuable knowledge.
This version is supported by the fact that the Guanches turned out to be the only island people in the world who do not have any nautical skills and do not know what it means to sail on the sea. At the same time, goats, sheep, dogs and pigs, both domesticated and feral, were found in abundance on the islands. Who brought people and pets to the Canary Islands?
According to the testimony of the Guanches, the inhabitants of neighboring islands, located so close to each other that it was possible to see large objects, did not even attempt to establish any connection by sea. Some scholars believe that the answer to the question of the absence of seafarers among the Guanches must be sought in the beliefs and prejudices of the islanders. It is possible that their distant ancestors experienced a terrible catastrophe associated with the ocean, after which a categorical demand for descendants not to seek to conquer the sea element was passed from generation to generation.
One of the most interesting explanations for the lack of navigation among the mysterious islanders is associated with the submerged Atlantis. There is a version that the Guanches are the shepherds of the Atlanteans who managed to escape during the immersion of the ancient continent in the waters of the World Ocean. The inhabitants of the islands of the Canary archipelago themselves considered themselves the only people in the world who had escaped from a mysterious catastrophe that happened in the past.
With such a high degree of organization, the Guanches, like the aborigines of Australia and the Bushmen of South Africa, made fire by rubbing wooden sticks. There are no metals in volcanic rocks, so the technological development of the aborigines corresponded to the level of the Stone Age. They did not know iron and made axes from obsidian, a dark volcanic rock.
The Guanches were mainly engaged in agriculture, growing wheat, barley, legumes - peas, beans, chickpeas. The grain was ground on stone millstones into flour - gofio, from which cakes were baked. In the villages, these gofio cakes are still a favorite dish.
The natives ate meat and milk, made clothes from skins, and made plows from horns. In addition, they collected the fruits of wild plants, hunted wild large reptiles and birds, fished in tidal waters and shallow areas, and also collected shellfish on the shores.
Guanches became famous for the fact that, in addition to sheep, goats and pigs, they bred huge bardino dogs, from which modern and already smaller mastiffs turned out. The dogs had large bulging eyes and a vicious disposition. They perfectly protected the cattle of their owners from the encroachments of hostile neighbors. By the way, unlike the Guanches, the dogs still thrive on the islands, not missing the opportunity to give a good spank to a gape tourist.
The crafts of this people were close to the ancient Greek culture. The graceful shape of the vases, decorated with "geometric" designs, probably applied with "seals", deserve special attention. Interesting objects have been found in Gran Canaria, called the Spanish word pintaderas. These are "seals" the size of a baked clay coin and have a handle. Similar tools were used by Indians in Mexico and Colombia, as well as Berbers in North Africa for tattooing.
Gran Canaria island
In 1360, two Spanish ships entered the Gando Bay near one of the islands of the archipelago. The local population, recognizing them as pirates, began to throw stones at the newcomers. The newcomers deep in the interior of the island were taken prisoner. The frightened Spaniards left the bay. The prisoners were treated very humanely, because, writes Abreu de Galindo, they had a custom to treat a defeated enemy in this way.
Spanish conquest of the Guanches (1402-96) / commons.wikimedia.org
The Guanches did not know either metal or firearms, but with their wooden and stone (long and sharp blades of volcanic stone) weapons they could repel any enemy. The conquest of the Canary Islands began in 1402, when Norman Jean de Bethencourt, a Norman knight, contemplated their colonization and captured the island of Lanzarote. The monk Le Verrier, who accompanied Bettencourt, wrote:
There are many people in Tenerife, they are very tall and strong, and it is difficult to take them alive. They are decisive and merciless, if they take someone prisoner, they kill.
However, others testify that at first the Guanches were distinguished by exceptional peacefulness, they could again recognize their sworn enemies as friends, behave nobly and even liberate prisoners. They tried not to resort to weapons, and having quarreled with neighbors, they simply fenced off from them with a stone wall. For example, on the island of Fuerteventura, such a wall divided the entire island in half. The only pity is that these walls did not save the islands from pirates and conquistadors.
Fuerteventura island
The Spanish invaders fought the indigenous population of the Canary Islands for 134 years. Armed only with spears, bows with arrows and stone knives and axes, the Guanches put up stubborn resistance, always fighting to the end, and if they surrendered, then only for the sake of saving women and children.
The forces were unequal: over 80 years of war, on the island of Gran Canaria alone, the Guanche army decreased from 14 thousand to 600 people. In fierce battles, surrounded by superior enemy forces, most of the Guanches threw themselves into the abyss, leaving the Spaniards with women, old people and children. The last was the conquered island of Tenerife, whose inhabitants were considered the most rebellious and warlike. In its mountains, the partisan war lasted until the end of 1495.
As a result, by the 17th century, out of more than 20 thousand Guanches known at the time of the beginning of the seizure of the island, most of the population was exterminated, sold into slavery in the slave markets of Spain and the Maghreb. The surviving islanders, following the example of their leaders, converted to Christianity and mingled with the Franco-Spanish colonists. The process of cultural and ethnic assimilation proceeded so rapidly that soon practically nothing remained of the Guanche culture, except for some traditions in agriculture and language.
Lanzarote island
This is how the blue-eyed giants ceased to exist, communicating among themselves in the whistling language of tropical birds and burying their dead in caves next to their dwellings, but who for more than 100 years managed to provide worthy resistance to the armed invaders. After the capture of the islands, the brutal Spaniards destroyed and desecrated even the burials of the Guanches with hundreds and thousands of mummies.
Already in our time, the found mummies had a blood type that makes their owners akin to the ancient population of North-Western Europe, and among the tools and utensils found there are items related to the Eneolithic of Liguria, that is, to the European Mediterranean.
Palm Island
The language of the Guanches is gradually disappearing into oblivion, the inscriptions have not been deciphered, much in their history remains incomprehensible. But the modern inhabitants of the Canary Islands believe that the blood of the ancient Guanches still flows in their veins and they say:
The real Canaries are those whose ancestors lived here for at least five hundred years. And if you meet a tall red-haired man with blue eyes on the islands, then do not hesitate - this is a true guanch.
Used materials from the article by Grigory Krasilnikov