Page:Iracéma, the honey-lips (1886).djvu/19

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IRAÇÉMA.
5

At the first impulse his nimble hand sought his sword-cross ; but presently he smiled.

The young warrior had been brought up in the religion of his mother, wherein Woman is a symbol of tenderness and love. He suffered more in his soul than from his wound.

What expression was in his eye and whole face— who knows? But it made the virgin cast away her bow and Uiraçába,[1] and run to the warrior, pained at the pain she had caused. The hand so swift to strike more rapidly and gently staunched the dripping stream.

Then Iraçéma brake the murderous arrow. She offered the shaft to the unknown, and she kept the barbed point.

The warrior spoke :—

" Dost thou break with me the arrow of peace?"[2] " Who taught the white warrior the tongue of Iraçéma՚s brethren ? How came he to these forests, which never saw other warrior like to him ? "

" Daughter of the forests, I come from afar : I come from the land which thy brothers once pos-
sessed, and wherein mine now dwell."

" Welcome be the stranger to the Prairie of the Tabajáras, Lords of the Villages, and to the wigwam of Araken, father of Iraçéma."

CHAPTER III.

The stranger followed the virgin through the glades.

When the last sun-rays fell upon the crest of the

  1. ↑ Uiraçába (aljava), quiver for arrows.
  2. ↑ Guebrar a frecha. To break an arrow with an Indian was a bond of alliance which could not be broken. It was owing to this circumstance, and to Martim Soares Moreno throwing away his European costume, and dressing and painting like the Red Men, entering also into their customs and language, that he acquired such an influence over them.
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