Siamese cat Méia:The Jaguar and the common sense heroe

	Only 23 km (= 14.2 miles) away from the big city Belo Horizonte, Brazil, lies the small village of Macacos (Monkeys). Though two and a half times older then century old capital city of the State Minas Gerais, it has remained almost the same throughout time, and some families have lived here since its beginning. This story was told to us by one of those "old timers" and happened - so he said - to his father some 80 or 90 years ago. In those days there was no electricity, no phones, no roads, and the only way of reaching the nearest town (25km or 15.5 miles - away was walking or riding over savannah covered hills and through deep forested valleys.
Parts of that forest exist today, and it's amazing how many animal species still live there. But in those old days, among the many animals who lived there, Jaguars roamed. As there was plenty of prey to hunt, this represented no problem for the villagers, and only rarely was a calf or foal missing.
	Then suddenly these disappearances became frequent, and amazingly large footprints were found not far from the village.
Residents came together to discuss the matter. The older and more experienced ones opined that, since jaguars never remain at the same place for long, the best and simplest thing to do would be to take the cattle and horses to graze on the opposite side of the village untill the jaguar moved out of the territory. The father of our friend (let's call him Fernando), who was then a very young man, disagreed.
	He was so attracted by the fame and glory he thought a hunted jaguar would bring him, that he insisted in hunting it against the counsel of almost all neighbours. The next day saw Fernando, overloaded with all the guns he could assemble,heading for the hills.
It was several days later, when coming round the corner of a big stone, he suddenly gasped and retreated - just in time! Carefully peeping round the stone again, he gasped again ... a short distance away, sunning himself on a stone in the afternoon sun, was the largest of all jaguars, calmly licking its claws.
	- and what claws these were! What huge canines reflecting in the sun! It was then that the well-known saying - of the old days, long before automatic guns - occured to him, "To hunt a jaguar, one needs no more than a bullet. If this one misses, all others will be of no avail!" Fernando looked again and wondered how many successfull hunts it would take to make teeth and claws grow to that size! It was then (so we were told) that he heard the Lord's voice whispering in his brain: "Fernando, have I given you common sense for nothing?? Are you going to waste your life on a missing bullet??" And inwardly, Fernando felt the answer was NO !
But, just as he was carefully beginning to retreat, another inward voice was heard: "... and how will you face the scorn and laughter when you come back to the village empty-handed, with all your arsenal?"... and after a short pause ..."At least make up a thrilling story so that they are bound to respect you!"
	Under such considerations, Fernando made the long way back to his home. Let's see what happened on his arrival: As he had anticipated, there were grins on all sides when he first appeared in the village street. Almost immediatly the first verbal arrow hit:
"Now then, Fernando, was the jaguar so afraid of you and your arsenal that he hid away in an ant hole and you couldn't find it?" "No", said Fernando, and began to tell his story exactly as it happened. "And then," he added, "while I was coming back, I tried hard to invent some convincing stories, but each idea seemed more silly then the last."
"At last, I even argued with the Lord: 'Why did You put jaguars into this world - only to make us look like fools or cowards?', but I prompty felt the answer." 'Would I waste My power on something as foolish as that ?? Try a better guess!' - and it was then, while remembering the jaguar, that I suddenly understood - a jaguar fears no one and nothing, he is truly himself, all the time! Why, he even gives us the one-shot chance to test if we are foolish enougth to shoot, or cowards enough to be ashamed of not being fools! But me, I am neither fool nor coward! I'm like a jaguar, with common sense!"
The jaguar soon moved from the neighborhood and was not heard from anymore.As to Fernando, he had a long and peacefull life in his village, well-liked by all, until he died at an age over ninety.

Thank you, Geocities !