Iraçéma: the Honey-lips, a Legend of Brazil/Chapter 32
CHAPTER XXXII.
The sun declines. Japy springs out of the forest and runs towards the Wigwam-door.
Iraçéma, sitting with her child upon her bosom, basks in the sun՚s ray, for she feels the cold shivering through her frame. On seeing the faithful messenger of her husband, hope revived in her heart. She would have arisen to meet her Lord and Warrior, but her weak limbs refused to obey her will.
She fell helpless against a Wigwam-prop.
Japy licked the inanimate hand, and jumped playfully, to make the child laugh, with little barks of joy. At times it rushed to the forest skirts and barked to call its master, and then it ran back to the cabin to fondle the mother and the child.
At this time Martim was treading the yellow prairies of Tauapé ;[1] his inseparable brother, Poty, marched by his side.
Eight moons[2] had sped since he had left the beach of Jacarécanga. After conquering the Guaraciábas in the Bay of the Parrots, the Christian warrior left for the banks of the Mearim, where lived the savage allies of the Tupinambás.
Poty and his warriors accompanied him. After they had crossed the flowing arm of the sea which comes from the Serra of Tauatinga[3] and bathes the plains where men fish for Piau,[4] they finally saw the beaches of the Mearim, and the Velha Taba[5] of the barbarous Tapuia.
The race of the Sunny-hair gained more and more the friendship of the Tupinambás, the number of the white warriors increased, and they had already raised in the island the great Itaoca[6] to send forth their lightning.
When Martim had seen what was wanted, he retraced his way to the prairies of the Porangába, which he now treads. Already he hears the hoarse grating of the tide on the beach of the Mocoribe; already the breath of the ocean wave fans his cheek.
The nearer his step approaches the Wigwam, the slower and more heavy it becomes. He dreads to arrive; he feels that his soul is about to suffer, when the sad heart-weary eyes of his wife shall pierce it.
Long ago had speech deserted his parched lip; the friend respects this silence, which he well understands. It is the stillness of the waters running over the dark deep places.
As soon as the two warriors reached the river-banks, they heard the barking of the dog calling them and the cry of the Jandáia in lamentation.
They were now very near the Wigwam, which was hid only by a slip of forest. The Christian stopped, pressing his hand to his bosom to still his heart, which beat like the Poraquî.[7]
"The bark of Japy is of gladness," quoth the chief.
"Because he has arrived; but the voice of the Jandáia is of sadness. Will the absent warrior find peace in the bosom of the deserted wife, or will Saudades have killed the fruit of her love?"
The Christian moved forward his dilatory step. Suddenly, between the branches of the trees, his eyes beheld sitting at the Wigwam-door Iraçéma with her boy in her lap, and the dog playing about them. His heart carried him there with a bound, and his whole soul rushed to his lips—
"Iraçéma !"
The broken-hearted wife and mother could only open her eyes on hearing the beloved voice. Only with a great effort she can raise the babe in her arms and present it to the father, who gazes at it with ecstatic love.
"Receive the son of thy blood. Thou hast arrived in time; already my breasts have no nourishment for him."
Placing the child in the paternal arms, the unhappy mother fainted away, like the Jetyca[8] with its uprooted bulb. The husband then saw how pain and sorrow had withered her form; but beauty still dwelt there, like perfume in the fallen flower of the Manacá.[9]
Iraçéma rose no more from the hammock where the afflicted arms of Martim had placed her. The husband, whose love was born anew with paternal joy, surrounded her with caresses, which filled her soul with its former happiness. But they could not bring her back to life. The stamen of her flower was broken for ever.
"Let the body of thy wife sleep at the foot of the palm-tree which thou lovedst. When the breeze of the sea shall sigh amongst its leaves, Iraçéma will think it is thy voice whispering through her hair."
Her lip became silent for ever; the last spark faded away from the darkening eyes.
Poty supported his brother in his great sorrow. Martim felt how precious in misfortune is a true friend; he is like the hill which shelters from the hurricane[10] the trunk of the strong hardy Ubiratan, pierced by the Copim.[11]
The Camoçim received the corpse of Iraçéma, which, steeped in aromatic spices and sweet herbs, was buried at the foot of the palm tree on the river-banks. Martim broke a branch of myrtle, the leaf of sadness, and laid it on the last resting-place of his wife.
The Jandáia, perched at the top of the palm tree, sadly repeated—
"Iraçéma !"
From that time the Pytiguára warriors who passed by the deserted Wigwam, and who heard the plaintive voice of the devoted bird incessantly calling for its mistress, withdrew with their souls full of sadness from the palm-tree where sang the Jandáia.
And thus it happened that one day, the river where the palm-tree grew, and the prairies through which the river winds, came to be called Ceará.[12]
- ↑ Tauapé means "place of yellow clay." It is on the road to. Maranguape.
- ↑ Moons are months, as suns are days.
- ↑ Tauatinga, a Serra in the province of Piauhy where rises the Parahyba river.
- ↑ Piau, a fish which gives its name to the river and province of Piauhy.
- ↑ Velha Taba is the Portuguese of Tapui-tapera, and was the name of one of the Tupinambá settlements in Maranhão.
- ↑ Itaoca, house of stone—fortress.
- ↑ Poraquî, electric fish which jumps; of flat, broad, and ugly shape.
- ↑ Jetyca, a tree which gives gum.
- ↑ Manacá, a flower well known in Pará. They also call by this name the most beautiful girl in a tribe, or anything of pleasure connected with a feast.
- ↑ In the original Vendaval, which is the wind that brings ships home from the West Indies. It is not constant, as the trade-wind, yet it generally ranges between the south and north- west.
- ↑ Copim, a white ant, composed of co, a hole, and pim, a sting.
- ↑ Ceará is composed of cemo, to sing loud, and ará, a parroqueet. The above is the legend which gave the province its name.
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, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
|---|---|
| Translation: |
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
