Page:Iracéma, the honey-lips (1886).djvu/84

Four moons had lighted the heavens since Iraçéma had left the plains of Ipú, and three since she had dwelt in the Wigwam of her husband by the shore of the sea.

Gladness dwelt within her soul. The daughter of the forest was happy as the swallow that abandons its paternal nest and goes forth to build a new home in the land where the flower-season begins. Iracema likewise found there, on the sea-shore, a nest of love —the heart՚s new country!

She wandered over the beautiful plains like the humming-bird hovering amongst the flowers of the acacia. The light of early morning found her already clinging to the shoulder of her husband, ever smiling, like the Enrediça,^[1] which twines round the tree-trunk, and which covers it with a new garland every morning.

Martim went out to hunt with Poty. He then separated himself from her in order to have the pleasure of returning to her.

In the middle of a green pasture hard by was a beautiful lake, to which the wild girl used to direct her light step. It was the hour of the morning bath. She would cast herself into the water, and swim with the white herons and the scarlet Jaçanans. The Pytiguára warriors who chanced to come that way called this the "Lake of Beauty," because it was bathed in by Iraçéma, the most beautiful of the race of Tupan.

And from that time till now, mothers come from

afar to dip their daughters in the waters of the Por-