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IRAÇÉMA.
61

The travellers slept at Uruburetama.[1] When the sun reappeared, it found them on the banks of the river which rises in the Serra-gap, and descends winding like a serpent into the plain. Its mazes deceive, at every step, the pilgrims who follow its tortuous course; for which reason it was called the Mundahú.[2]

Following its cool banks, Martim, on the second sun, beheld the green seas and the white beaches, where the murmuring waves now sob, and then, raging with fury, break in flakes of foam.

The eyes of the white warrior dilated at the vast expanse, his chest heaved. This same sea also kissed the white sands of the Potengi,[3] his cradle, where he first saw the light of America. He threw himself into the waves, and revelled in the thought that he bathed his body in the waters of his native country, and his soul in yearning for it.

Iraçéma felt her heart weep, but soon her warrior՚s smile reassured her.

Meantime Poty from the top of a palm tree arrowed the savoury Camoropim,[4] which sported in the little bay of Mundahú, and prepared the Moquem for their refection.

CHAPTER XXI.

The sun had already left the zenith. The travellers

reach the mouth of that river where the savoury Tra-

  1. ↑ Uruburetama, a high mountain-range which swarms with vultures՚ nests.
  2. ↑ Mundahú, a tortuous river rising in the Serra of Uruburetama; from mundé, a snare, and hú or ú a river.
  3. ↑ Potengi, the river that waters the city of Natal, a seaport town of Rio Grande do Norte, where Martim Soares Moreno was born.
  4. ↑ Camoropim, a large fish, tasting like a codfish.
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