Page:Iracéma, the honey-lips (1886).djvu/24

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IRAÇÉMA.

mystery of dreams. Her hand prepares for the Pagé the drink of Tupan."

The Christian warrior crossed the wigwam and disappeared in the darkness.

The great village lay in the bottom of the valley, which was illuminated by bonfires. Loud rattled the Maracá. The savages were dancing and beating time to their slow surging of the savage song. The inspired Pagé headed the sacred rejoicing, and taught to the believers the secrets of Tupan. The principal chief of the Tabajára nation, Irapúam,[1] had descended from the highest point of the Ibyapaba Serra, to lead the inland tribes against the Pytiguára foe. The warriors of the valley celebrate the arrival of the chief and the coming fight.

The Christian youth saw from afar the glare of the feast-fire, and walked on, gazing at the deep-blue, cloudless sky. The "Dead Star"[2] glittered upon the dome of the forest, and guided his firm step towards the fresh banks of the Acaraú.

When he crossed the valley, as if about to enter the forest, the figure of Iraçéma arose before him. The virgin had followed the stranger like the soft and subtle breeze which passes through the tangled wood without stirring a leaf.

"Wherefore," she murmured, "has the stranger left the Wigwam of Hospitality without taking with him the Gift of Return?[3] Who harmed the pale-faced warrior in the land of the Tabajáras?"

  1. ↑ Irapúam was the celebrated Tabajára chief in Ceará. The word means Mel-Redondo in Portuguese, in English Round-Honey. He was so called after a wild and vicious bee of that name, whose honeycomb is round. Irapúam was a bloodthirsty chief, and his tribe were bitter enemies of the Pytigúaras, and their allies the Portuguese. They supported the French of Maranhão.
  2. ↑ Estrella morta, dead star. They so called the Polar star on aceount of its immobility, and it was their guide by night.
  3. ↑ O presente da volta, a hospitable Indian custom.
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