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IRAÇÉMA.

The wife of Martim sprang up with one bound to protect her child. Her brother raised his sad eyes from the hammock to her face, and spoke with a still sadder voice.

"It was not vengeance which drew the warrior Cauby to the plains of the Tabajáras; he has already forgiven. It was a longing to see Iraçéma, who took away with her all his gladness."

"Then welcome be the warrior Cauby to the cabin of his brother," said the wife, embracing him.

"The fruit of thy bosom sleeps in this hammock, and the eyes of Cauby long to behold it."

Iraçéma opened the fringe of feathers and showed the babe՚s fair face. Cauby contemplated it for some time, and then laughing said—

"He has sucked the soul of my sister,"[1] and he kissed in the mother՚s eyes the image of the child, fearing lest his touch might hurt it.

The trembling voice of the girl cried—

"Does Araken still live upon the earth?"

"Hardly; since my sister left him his head bent upon his bosom, and it rose up no more."

"Tell him that Iraçéma is already dead, that he may be consoled."

Cauby՚s sister prepared food for the warrior, and slung in the porch the hammock of hospitality, that he might repose after the fatigues of the journey. When the traveller was refreshed, he arose with these words―

"Say, where is Iraçéma՚s husband and Cauby՚s brother, that the braves may exchange the embrace of friendship?".

The sighing lips of the unhappy wife moved like

the petals of the cactus-flower stirred by a breeze,

  1. ↑ Chupou tua alma. A child in Tupy is called Pitanga, from piter, to suck, and anga, soul—suck-soul. Cauby meant that it resembled the mother, and had absorbed a portion of her spirit.
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