Page:Iracéma, the honey-lips (1886).djvu/77

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IRAÇÉMA.
63

Pacoty,[1] on whose borders flourished the leafy banana, waving its green plumes.

Farther on is the Iguápe[2] stream, whose waters encircle the dunes of sand.

In the distance, crowning the horizon, appeared a high sand-hill, snowy white as the ocean foam. The summit overhung the palms and cocos, and appeared like the bald head of the Condor,[3] there awaiting the storm blowing up from the ocean bounds.

"Poty knows the great hill of sand?" asked the Christian.

"Poty knows all the land that belongs to the Pytiguáras, from the banks of the great river which forms an arm of the sea,[4] to the banks of the stream where the Jaguar lives. He has been already to the height of Mocoribe, and thence he has seen, far at sea, the big Igáras[5] of the white warriors, the enemies of my brother, who dwell in Mearim."

Why callest thou the great sand-hill Mocoribe?"

"The fisherman of the beach, who puts out to sea in Jangádas, there where the Aty[6] flies, is sad because he is far from his cabin where sleep the children of his blood. When he returns, and his eyes first behold the hill of sand, gladness returns to the man՚s breath. Then he says that the hill of the sands gives joy."

  1. ↑ Pacoty, river of the Pacobas. It rises in the Serra of Baturité, and empties itself into the ocean, two leagues north of Aquirás. Pacoba, also called Pacoeira and Musa, is the indigenous banana of Brazil, a shrubby growth some ten or twelve feet high, and as thick as a man՚s thigh, yet so soft that it may be cut down with a single stroke of the sword.
  2. ↑ Iguápe, a bay distant two miles from Aquirás. The word, which is common in Brazil, means "water which encircles."
  3. ↑ The well-known and monstrous bird of the eagle species, with a very hard, sharp beak that will pierce a bull՚s hide.
  4. ↑ Rio que forma um braço do mar. This is the Parnahyba, the main river of Piauhy, and literally means "arm running from the sea."
  5. ↑ Igáras, big canoes, meaning the ships of the French.
  6. ↑ Aty, seagull.
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