Page:Iracéma, the honey-lips (1886).djvu/26
CHAPTER V.
The Prairie-cock raises his scarlet crest from out his home. His clear trill announces the approach of day.
Darkness still covers the earth, but already the savage people roll up the hammocks in the great Taba, and walk towards the bath. The old Pagé, who had watched all night, talking to the stars, and conjuring the bad spirits of the darkness,[1] entered furtively into the wigwam.
Lo! thundered forth the Boré,[2] filling the valley with its booming sound.
The active warriors seize their weapons and rush to the prairies; when all were collected in the large and circular Ocára,[3] the chief Irapúam sounded the war-cry.
"Tupan gave to the great Tabajára nation all these grounds. We guard the Serras which supply with water the rivers and the fresh Ipús,[4] where grows the maníva,[5] and the cotton. We have abandoned to the barbarous Potyuára,[6] Eaters of Prawns, the naked sands of the sea, with the table-lands wanting wood and water. Now these fishers of the beach, always conquered, give sea-way to the white race, the Warriors
- ↑ Os máos espiritos da treva : the savages call these spirits Curupira, wicked imps.
- ↑ Boré or Muré means a pipe of bamboo, which gives out a hollow, roaring sound.
- ↑ Ocára, a circular space in the centre of a village, upon which all the wigwams open.
- ↑ Ipú, a small fertile oasis in the prairies.
- ↑ Maníva is the root of mandioca, which is like our parsnip, but larger. The Indians dry and grind it, make bread of it, or eat it as farinha (flour).
- ↑ Potyuára means a "Comedor de Camarão," or "Eater of the Prawn." This was a spiteful soubriquet given to the Pytiguáras by their enemies, because they lived on the shores and chiefly ate fish.