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IRAÇÉMA.
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the white Tapuios,[1] the allies of the Tabajáras, enemies of Poty՚s nation."

The Pytiguára chief reflected and replied—

"My brother may go and bring his warriors. Poty will plant his Taba close to the Mayry[2] of his friend."

Iraçéma drew nigh. The Christian made a gesture of silence to the Pytiguára chief.

"The voice of the husband is silent, and his eyes fall when Iraçéma comes. Shall she depart?

"Thy husband wants thee nearer, that his voice and eyes may penetrate still deeper into thy soul."

The beautiful savage was radiant with smiles, as the ripening flower opens its petals, and she leant upon the shoulder of her warrior.

"Iraçéma listens to thee."

"These plains are joyful, and will be more so when Iraçéma dwells in them. What says her heart?"

"Iraçéma՚s heart is ever glad when she is with her lord and warrior."

The Christian followed the bank of the river and chose a place for his Wigwam. Poty felled the Carnaúba to make props of its trunks; the daughter of Araken weaved, fanlike, the fronds of the palms to thatch the roof and cloth the walls. Martim dug the trenches, and made a door of laths and layers of bamboo.

When night came, the lovers slung their hammock in their new cabin, and the friend slept in the porch which faced the rising sun.

  1. ↑ Brancos tapuios; in Tupy, Tapuitininga. A name the Pytiguáras gave to the French, to distinguish them from Tupinambás. The word means the "Deserters of their village."
  2. ↑ Mayry, city, comes from mayr, stranger, and was applied to the settlements of the whites to distinguish them from the Indian villages; in fact, a strangery.

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