Iraçéma: the Honey-lips, a Legend of Brazil/Chapter 33
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Cajueiro flowered four times since Martim had left the shores of Ceará, bearing with him in the fragile bark his little son and the faithful dog. The Jandáia would not leave the land where rested its friend and mistress.
The first Cearense, still in his cradle, thus became an Emigrant from his Fatherland. Did this announce the destinies of the race to be?
Poty with his warriors awaited on the river-banks. The Christian had promised to return; every morning he climbed the sand-hill and strained his eyes, hoping for a friendly sail to whiten the sea-horizon.
Martim at last returned to the land which had once seen his happiness, and which now sees his bitter regret. When his foot pressed the hot white sand, there spread through his frame a fire which burned his heart: it was the fire of consuming memory.
The flame was extinguished only when he stood on the place where his wife slept, because at that moment his heart overflowed like the trunk of the Jetahy[1] in the great heats, and refreshed his grief with a shower of tears.
Many warriors of his race accompanied the white Chief to found with him the Christian Mayri. There came also a Priest of his Faith, black-robed, to plant the Cross upon this savage soil.
Poty was the first who knelt at the foot of the Sacred Wood. He would not allow anything again to part himself and his white brother; for this reason, as they had but one heart, he wished that both might have the same God.
He received in baptism the name of the Saint[2] whose day it was, and of the King he was about to serve; besides these two, his own translated into the tongue of his new brethren.
His fame increased, and it is still the pride of the land in which he first saw the light.
The Mayri which Martim founded on the river-banks within the shores of Ceará flourished. The word of the true God budded in the savage land, and the holy Church-bells re-echoed through the valleys where once bellowed the Maracá.
Jacaúna came to inhabit the plains of the Porangába, to be near his white friend. Camerão (Poty) placed the Taba of his warriors on the banks of the Mocejána. Later, when Albuquerque,[3] the Great Chief of the White Warriors, arrived, Martim and Camarão made for the banks of the Mearim, to chastise the ferocious Tupinambá and to expel the white Tapuia.
The husband of Iraçéma never could behold without the deepest emotion the shores where he had been so happy, and the green leaves under whose shade slept the beautiful Tabajára girl.
Often he would go and sit upon these soft sands, to meditate, and to soothe the bitter Saudade in his heart.
The Jandáias still sang upon the crests of the palm-tree, but no more remembered the sweet name of Iracema.
On this Earth all things pass away!
finis.
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.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
|---|---|
| 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 |
