Page:Iracéma, the honey-lips (1886).djvu/71

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IRAÇÉMA.

57

"The bad spirits of the forest may again separate the white warrior from his Pytiguára brother. The dog will henceforth follow him, so that even from a distance Poty may hear his call."

"But the dog is thy companion and faithful friend."

"It will be Poty՚s companion and friend still more when it serves his brother than when it serves him. The white warrior shall call it 'Japy,'^[1] and it will be the fleet foot with which from afar they will run to each other."

Jacaúna gave the signal of departure.

The Pytiguára warriors marched for the glad banks of the Heron՚s River, where rose the great Taba of the Prairie Lords.

The sun declined and again soared in the heavens. The warriors arrived where the sea-range fell towards the midlands. Already they had passed that part of the mountain which, being scant of tree and shorn like the Capivára,^[2] the people of Tupan had called Ibyapina.^[3]

Poty took the Christian where grew a leafy Jatobá,^[4] that overtopped the trees of the Serra՚s highest point when waving before the wind; it seemed to sweep the sky with its immense dome.

"On this spot the white warrior՚s brother was born," said the Pytiguára Chief.

Martim embraced the enormous trunk.

↑ Japy means "our foot."
↑ Capivára, capiuára (that which lives on Capim, the coarse grass of the country), is a kind of water-hog. The Peruvian people of Rio Branco wear the teeth of this animal as earrings.
↑ Ibyapina means "bald land."
↑ Jatobá, an enormous and royal-looking tree. The place where this scene took place is now called Villa Viçosa, where tradition says Poty, afterwards Camarão, was born. Jatobá is the name of a river and of a Serra in South Quiteria, and Jatobá was the name of the father of Poty and Jacaúna.

[1] Japy means "our foot."

[2] Capivára, capiuára (that which lives on Capim, the coarse grass of the country), is a kind of water-hog. The Peruvian people of Rio Branco wear the teeth of this animal as earrings.

[3] Ibyapina means "bald land."

[4] Jatobá, an enormous and royal-looking tree. The place where this scene took place is now called Villa Viçosa, where tradition says Poty, afterwards Camarão, was born. Jatobá is the name of a river and of a Serra in South Quiteria, and Jatobá was the name of the father of Poty and Jacaúna.

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