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IRAÇÉMA

prairies, where I strayed, but I would not leave them without telling thee who the warrior is whom thou hast made thy friend."

"It is Tupan whom the Pagé serves. He sent him a guest, and he will take him away again. Araken has as yet done nothing for him. He does not ask whence he comes nor whither he goes. If he would sleep, may the happy dreams descend upon him ; if he would speak, Araken listens."

The stranger said :—

"I am of the white warriors who raised a Taba on the banks of the Jaguaribe,[1] near the sea, where dwell the Pytiguáras,[2] who hate thy blood. My name is Martim,[3] which in thy tongue means Son of a Warrior. My race is that of the Great People who first saw the lands of thy country.[4] Even now my brethren, routed and beaten back, return by sea to the margins of the Parahyba,[5] whence they came, and my chief,[6] aban-
doned by all, crosses the vast regions of the Apody.[7] Of so many I alone remain, because I was amongst the Pytiguáras of the Acaraú,[8] in the wigwam of the valiant Poty, brother of Jacaúna, who planted with me the Friendship-tree. Three suns have set since we went forth on the hunting path. I lost sight of

  1. ↑ Jaguaribe, the largest river of the province of Ceará : from jaguar, small tiger, and ibe, plenty.
  2. ↑ Pytiguáras, the great Indian nation who inhabited the lit-
    toral of the province from Parahyba to Rio Grande do Norte, whose chiefs were Poty and Jacaúna, brothers, and firm friends of Martim Soares Moreno, and of all the Portuguese. They were at war with the Tabajáras and the French.
  3. ↑ Descendant of Mars.
  4. ↑ The Portuguese.
  5. ↑ Parahyba, a province south-east of Ceará on the Atlantic.
  6. ↑ Pero Coelho and his party.
  7. ↑ The Sertão desconhecido or unknown regions of Rio Grande do Norte, the most north-easterly province of Brazil on the Atlantic.
  8. ↑ Acaraú, or "Stream of the Herons," also called Acáracú, "Stream of the Herons՚ Nests," a river of Ceará.
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