Page 128 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

Throughout the trip, Dan and I asked a lot of ques tions abo ut the jagua r.
Walking through the forest at night , we wanted to be pr epared for an

encounter. We were given spears, whi ch made us feel bet ter. But over and over
Manuel shook his head and explained that if a jaguar really wants you, the re
will not be much fight. It is rare for someone to speak of seeing a jagua r in the
forest. If you see one, it’s probably too late. Peopl e traveling in groups will, for

the most part, be left alone. From time to time, the last person in a pr ocession
will be picked off from behind, but cats generally avoid teams. The y are stealth
hunters. A lone traveler will be moving thr ough the forest, and the cat will be
crouched on a limb of an overhangi ng tree, bl endi ng int o the forest cano py,

listening, waiting. Then the ambus h emerges from nowher e, and the cat is on
your neck. In Manuel’s descriptions of the jaguar, ther e seemed to be an almost
religious respect for its power, cunni ng, and intensity. But what if I ha ve a
machete? How could I not have a chance?

One evening, lying in hammocks above the forest fl or, engul fed by de ep
blackness and the wild symphony of ni ght sounds , Manuel told us wha t
happened to a friend of his a few years before. This man was named José. He
was born in the Amazon. He knew the jungl e’s sounds , its smells, its signs . He

knew how to heal every conceivabl e ailment with saps and bo iled ba rks of trees,
roots, leaves. He climbed vines like a monkey, hunt ed every eveni ng with a
blowgun and darts laced with the venom of poisono us frogs . José coul d ope rate
from sound and smell alone, freezing in the dar k forest, listeni ng, the n

shooting his dart into the dusky woods and hi tting hi s mark for hi s family’s
dinner. He was one of the rare ones who ventur ed into the forest alone . On
these evenings, he wore a mask on hi s head, eyes po int ing backw ard so the cats
would not ambush him from behind. His onl y weapo n was hi s small bl owgun

and a machete he apparently wielded like a s amur ai.
One night José was moving through the forest, dar knes s closing in, on the
way home with a small capybara strapped to hi s back. Sudde nl y hi s ski n
prickled. He stopped, listened, heard the deep rum bl e of a cat. He smelled the

animal, knew it was near. He felt for hi s bl owgun, but it had been a long ni ght
hunting and there were no darts left. José was standi ng nex t to a gi ant
Sumaumeira tree, which are often us ed by Amazoni ans for communi cating over
long distances in the jungle. Immediately, José took hi s machet e and swung it

back and forth in a blur, clanging agai nst the tree’s magni fi expo sed root