The Presa Canario Dog: It's true originManuel Curtó Gracia
La Laguna - Tenerife
1991
THE DOG IN THE MYTH AND IN THE
CULT OF THE GUANCHES
Friar Juan Abreu de Galindo relates
us, in his History of the Conquest of
the seven islands of Gran Canaria, edition 1632, page103, that to the inhabitants of Canaria and
La Palma
often appeared them the demon at night and day "like large fleecy dogs, and other
figures to which they called "Tibisenas" (in
Canaria), and "Irnene" (in La Palma).
Is
not necessary to say that is absolutely impossible to
know the origin of that demoniac spirit. Known is that the
myths, the beliefs, the demons, the gods, are a cultural
product. And is clear that this large and fleecy dog
(unreal) could exist in the country from where they came
the natives of Gran Canaria and La Palma.
But
these dogs in those two islands existed before the arrival of the Europeans? No, they
did not exist.
Today, in La Palma a handful of fans breed dogs of abundant long hair to which
they call garafianos.
These, of course,
nothing has to do with those demonic large and fleecy
dogs. These are product of crossing, carried out
recently, between Collie and crosses of the islands with something
remote of German Shepherd.
"In Tenerife -we read in
book Los Guanches of Luís Diego Cuscoy,
page 108 - although we do not know the existence of the
dog in relation to the myth, is animal that is present in
the cult of deads. There are no chroniclers nor another
old source that talks about the role of the dog in the guanche´s
funeral rites.
The archaeological excavation has
revealed the presence of the dog next to the dead,
probably the owner.
It would represent the role of the
animal guide of the soul towards the region of deads. It
is possible, almost surely, that the animal would be
sacrificed at the same time of the death of the owner.
The finding of the dog next to the owner was verified in several burial caves of
Tenerife, but it has been in nekropolis of El Llano de
Maja where next to the corpse of the shepherd, with an assembly very complete
of funeral offerings - with beads necklace, burins, slices of obsidian,
ceramics, torches , etc.-, was a skull of dog
corresponding to a type of small stature, with rest of
mummification in small zones with short hair of a dark
cream color". "It was part of the
indigenous feeding, but in small scale".
In the book El
Conjunto Ceremonial de Guargacho, of the same author,
page 90, we read: "The consumption of dog meat in the feeding of the native is sufficiently verified. In the cave of Los Cabezazos, starting from rest of kitchen with bony material of goat, pig and
dog, the following data have been obtained: the rest of
goat represented 57.5%, those of pig 30.3%, and those of
dog 21,2%. From the same bed, using now only loose
dental pieces have obtained very significant percentage:
of goat 60.7%, pig 28.2%, dog 11.1% ". "Therefore, cynophagy (dog-eating) between the
natives is unquestionable, but rather moderate, although perhaps
more accentuated in the north that in the south
of Tenerife".
Skull of aborigine dog photographed in the
Tenerife Archeological Museum. It is no more than
10 cm. in length, which means that corresponds to a
dog of small dimensions.
