Iraçéma: the Honey-lips, a Legend of Brazil/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII.
The forest literally trembled as it echoed the career of the Tabajára braves.
The form of Irapúam the Great first looms amidst the trees. His suffused eye caught sight of the white warrior through a cloud of blood; a hoarse and tiger-like roar burst from his brawny chest.
The Tabajára Chief and his tribe were about to fall upon the fugitives like the swollen waves which break on the Mocoribe՚s[1] flank.
But hush !—in the distance sounds the bark of the Indian dog.
Poty gave a cry of joy.
"It is Poty՚s hound that guides the warriors of his Taba to save his brother."
The hoarse sea-shell of the Pytiguáras bellowed through the forest. The great Jacaúna, Lord of the Sea-shores, was marching from the river of the herons with the best of his braves.
The Pytiguáras receive the first assault of the foe on the jagged heads of their shafts, which they loosed in showers like the porcupine[2] raising his quills. Presently resounded the War-Poçema of the Tabajáras ; the space between the enemies was narrowed, and the hand-to-hand combat began.
Jacaúna attacked Irapúam. The horrible fight was that of ten braves, yet it did not exhaust the strength of the two great chiefs. When their toma-hawks clashed, the battle trembled to the heart as one man.
The brother of Iraçéma came straight to the stranger who had taken the daughter of Araken from the hospitable Wigwam; the trail of vengeance led him; the sight of his sister maddened him. Cauby the brave furiously assaults the enemy.
Iraçéma remained by the side of her warrior and spouse. She saw Cauby from afar and cried—
"Let the Lord of Iraçéma listen to the prayer of his slave; let him not shed the blood of the son of Araken. If the warrior Cauby must die, let it be by the hand of Iraçéma, not by his."
Martim looked at the savage with eyes of horror.
"Would Iraçéma slay her brother?"
"Iraçéma would see the blood of Cauby stain her hand rather than the hand of her lord, because the eyes of Iraçéma dwell upon him, and not upon herself."
The battle still rages. Cauby fights with fury. The Christian hardly defends himself, but the poisoned arrows from the young wife՚s bow save him from the blows of the enemy.
Poty had already laid low the old Andira and all the braves who during the struggle had encountered his good tomahawk. Martim leaves to him the son of Araken and seeks out Irapúam.
"Jacaúna is a great Chief; his War-collar[3] thrice encircles his neck! This Tabájara belongs to the white warrior."
"Revenge is the honour of warfare, and Jacaúna loves the friend of Poty."
The great Pytiguára chief upraised his formidable tomahawk. The duel between Irapúam and Martim began. The Christian՚s sword was shivered by the savage՚s tomahawk. The Tabajára Chief advanced upon his unarmed adversary.
Iraçéma hissed like the Boicininga,[4] and threw herself between her warrior and the Tabajára; at once the massive weapon trembled in his powerful right hand and his arm fell inanimate by his side.
The Poçema of victory sounded. The Pytiguára warriors, headed by Jacaúna and Poty, swept the forest. The Tabajáras snatched, as they fled, their Chief from the hatred and vengeance of the daughter of Araken, who had the power of conquering him, as the Jandáia prostrates the tallest and strongest palm-tree by nibbling the core.
The eyes of Iraçéma, scanning the forest, saw the ground strewed with the bodies of her brethren, and in the distance the remnant of their war-party flying in a black cloud of dust. That blood which stained the ground was the same brave blood which now lit up her cheeks with shame.
The grief-drops moistened her beautiful cheek. Martim withdrew that he might not embarrass her sorrow. He wished her naked woe to bathe itself in tear floods.
- ↑ Mocoribe, now called Mucuripe, means "to make glad;" it is a hill of sand in a bay of the same name, a league from Fortaleza, the great seaport town of Ceará.
- ↑ In the original Coandú, porcupine.
- ↑ Seu collar de guerra. The collar which the savages made of the teeth of vanquished enemies (taking from each one tooth), was a blazon and a proof of valour.
- ↑ A large species of boa.
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 |
