Iraçéma: the Honey-lips, a Legend of Brazil/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X.
In the silent wigwam meditates the old Pagé.
Iraçéma leans against the rugged trunk that serves as a stay. Her large black eyes, fixed on the forest clearings, and sunk with sorrow, gaze with long and tremulous looks, threading and unthreading the seed-pearl of teardrops that bedew her cheeks.
The Ará, perched on the opposite shelf, views with sad green eyes her beautiful lady.
From the day that saw the white warrior tread Tabajára land she had been forgotten by Iraçéma. The rosy lips of the maid never opened now to let her pick from them the fruity pulp or the paste of green maize,[1] nor ever now did the sweet hand caress her or smooth the golden plumage of her head.
If she spoke the beloved name of her mistress, the smile of Iraçéma was never bent upon her, nor did the ear of the mistress even appear to know the voice of that companion and friend, which had once been so dear to her heart.
Woe to her! The Tupy nation called her Jandáia,[2] because in her joy she made the plains resound with her vibrating song. But now, sad and silent because disdained by her mistress, she appeared no more the beautiful Jandáia, but rather the homely Urutão,[3] which knows only to groan.
Low sloped the sun over the Serra heights; its rays hardly gilded the highest crests. The hushed melancholy of evening which precedes the silence of night began to oppress the various sounds of the prairie. Here and there a night-bird, deceived by the thicker darkness of the forest, screeched aloud.
The old man raised his bald forehead.
"Was it not the cry of the Inhuma bird[4] that awoke the ear of Araken?" said he, wondering.
The maiden trembled. Already she was out of the wigwam, and back to answer the Pagé's question.
"It is the War-cry of Cauby the brave!"
When the second screech of the midnight bird reached her ear, Iraçéma ran towards the forest, fleet as a doe pursued by the hunter: she never drew breath till she had reached the clearing, which lay in the wood like a long lake.
The first thing that met her eye was Martim, sitting tranquilly upon a Sapopema[5] bough and eyeing all that occurred. Opposite him a hundred Tabajára warriors with Irapúam at their head formed a circle. The brave Cauby, his eye flashing with anger and his weapons grasped in his muscular arm, stood up before them all.
Irapúam had demanded the stranger, and the guide had answered him simply—
"Slay Cauby first."
The daughter of the Pagé flew like an arrow. Behold her graceful form shielding Martim from the blows of the braves. Irapúam roared with rage, as roars the ounce attacked in its lair.
"Daughter of Araken," said Cauby in a whisper, "lead the stranger to the wigwam. Araken alone can save him."
Iraçéma turned towards the white warrior.
"Come!"
He remained immovable.
"If the stranger will not come, Iraçéma will die with him."
Martim arose; but far from following the maiden, he walked straight towards Irapúam. His sword flashed in the air.
"Chief! the Braves of my race have never refused combat. If he whom thou beholdest did not seek it, it was because his fathers have forbidden him to shed blood in the land of hospitality."
The Tabajára chief yelled with joy; his powerful arm wielded the tomahawk. But the two champions had scanty time to measure each other with the eye. When the first blow was being struck, Cauby and Iraçéma were between them.
In vain the daughter of Araken besought the Christian. Vainly did she throw her arms round him, endeavouring to withdraw him from the combat. On his side, Cauby as vainly strove to provoke Irapúam, and to draw upon himself the wrath of the chief.
At a sign from Irapúam, the warriors seized the brother and sister, and the combat began.
Suddenly the hoarse sound of the War-trumpet thundered through the forest. The sons of the Serra trembled as they recognised the boom of the Seashell and the War-cry of the Pytiguáras, those Lords of the Shores, which the fallen trees shade. The echo came from the Great Wigwam, which perhaps the enemy was at that moment attacking.
The warriors flew there, carrying with them their Chiefs. With the stranger only remained the daughter of Araken.
- ↑ Indian-corn, milho.
- ↑ Jandáia, also written Nhendáia and Nhándaia, which is an adjective that qualifies the ará or macaw, from nheng, to speak, antan, hard, rough, strong, and ará, the agent who acts, nh'ant-ará. Ceará in Tupy means "the song of the jandáia," from cemo, to sing loud, and arára, paroquet.
- ↑ Urutão, a night-bird.
- ↑ Inhuma, a bird which sings regularly about midnight with a harsh unpleasant note. The orthography is anhuma, from anho, solitary, and anum, a well-known aotophagus, which the aborigines regarded as a bird of augury. Thus it would mean the "solitary anum," the unicorn-bird.
- ↑ Sapopema, a tree with thick branches. The wood is hard, and is much prized for furniture.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work was published before January 1, 1931, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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| Translation: |
This work was published before January 1, 1931, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
