‘As you sit there warming your toes by the fires,’ said the old man, ‘do you ever think about fire and where it came from?’
Leon put down the book he was reading and looked up at his grandfather. Then he turned to look at the flames in the crackling fire in the hearth. The wind outside rattled the windows and Leon could hear the rain pouring down on the tin roof of the house . He wriggled his toes and felt the warmth of the fire.
Leon turned again to look at his grandfather . The old man was busy carving the figure of an animal out of a dark piece of wood. He watched his grandfather expertly cut away the wood with a sharp knife.
‘No, Grandfather,’ said Leon. ‘I know that fire is useful and it keeps us warm.We cook our food with it and we can see by the light it gives us. But where it comes from, who knows?’
The old man continued to whittle away at the piece of wood. Leon could see that the old man was carving an animal of some kind. The animal appeared to be long and sleek; its hind legs bent under its body as if it was getting ready to spring forward on some prey. ‘well, let me tell you how the people of our country, Brazil, first learnt about fore, Leon,’ said the old man.
‘In the days of your great-great-great-grand parents, your forefathers of many hundreds of years ago, the people of this land did not have fire.They were no better than the animals that w see today. They ate fruits and berries of the trees . In time, they learnt about seeds and how these could grow into plants which they could eat. And, of course , they hunted animals and killed them and ate their flesh. But they ate the flesh raw; it was never cooked because they knew not how to cook it; they knew nothing about fire.
‘ Sometimes they dried the meat in the sun or warmed it, before they ate it. But the sun was high up in the sky. The people enjoyed the heat and light that it gave; but it was not possible for them to obtain fire.
‘One day, a boy just like you, wandered away from the small settlement where he and his family, his uncles, aunts and cousins , all lived. The boy came to a high cliff and there , on the side of the cliff, he spied a macaw. Th boy threw a stick in the air and shook the bush. The mascaw , disturbed by this noise, flew away into some trees close by. The boy followed it, but when he went to the trees, the bird returned to the cliff. The boy kept his eyes on the mascaw, and from where he stood , he could see its nest hgh up on the cliff.
‘The boy returned to the cliff and began to climb. He was not put off by the height of the nest or the steepness of the cliff. Bravely he climbed higher and higher with only one thought in his mind, and that was to get to the mascows nest and steal its eggs. They would make a tasty feast, he thought.
‘So up and up he went, from one ledge to the next, never looking down. But when he reached the ledge below the nest, he found he could climb no further. There was nothing for him to hold on to. It was then that the boy looked down, and for the first time, he realized, to his great horror, how high he had climbed.
‘The boys legs turned to jelly and he felt faint. He clasped the rocky surface even more tightly. His legs trembled and he wanted to rest. But there was nowhere for him to sit down. The boy decided that the only thing to do was to move sideways along the ledge. Perhaps, in this way, he could find another route to the top or the bottom of the cliff.
‘Slowly and painfully, for his fingers were raw with the effort, he moved sideways along the cliff. He was now nowhere near the nest. Nor was he any closer to the ground!
‘After an age, the boy arrived at a much larger rock platform. He was now able to sit down and rest. But his bravery had deserted him. He looked at his bleeding fingers and toes, and he whimpered like a lost pup.
‘At the other end of the rocky platform, there were some thick bushes and shrubs. When he had rested for a while, and felt strong enough to move on, he made his way with great difficulty, through the vegetation. And then, he stopped dead in his tracks. For there, sunning itself at the entrance of a cave was a majestic and powerful jaguar!
‘The jaguar was surprised to see a man-boy in front of his cave . He pent his days avoiding men, for he did not trust them. They had killed his father and wounded his mother; and after much searching , he fond this cave on the edge of the cliff. He was safe here and only went out to hunt at night when the men were in their homes.
‘The jaguar looked long and hard at the whimpering boy. The boy did not move. He stood still and said not a word. The only sound was the gentle sobbing of the boy.
‘The jaguar saw that the boy’s hand were bleeding and slowly approached the boy. Then he began to lick the boy’s wounds.
‘Later, when the boy was feeling better, and had stopped quaking with fear, he entered the cave. It was warm and cosy in there. The boy followed the jaguar deeper into the cave. The narrow passage led into a large cavern inside. It was even warmer in here, and the boy could see the walls of the cave quite clearly. He thought that there must have been an opening in the top , and that sunlight was shining into the cave. But when he looked up, he could see no opening. It was then that he was a small fire blazing away o the floor of the cave. The boy looked at the fire in awe and wonder.
‘In the days that followed, the jaguar looked after the boy. At night the jaguar went out of the cave for a short while. He always returned with a small animal that he had caught. This he would put on the fire, and later, he and the boy would eat the roasted meat. From time to time, the jaguar returned carrying a mouthful of sticks to feed the fire with. The fire never went out.
‘ The boy had never seen fire before, but he liked what he saw. He never had this his meat roasted before, but he liked what he ate!’
‘While the boy was with the jaguar, he learnt how to make a bow and arrow. The jaguar did not understand what the boy was making or why. He had no idea what these strange-looking objects were for’
‘One day, when the jaguar left the cave as usual , the boy followed him. He watched the jaguar leap from the rocky platform into a low platform of a tree. Then the jaguar walked along this branch until he was close to another ledge, higher up the cliff.From here he dropped onto the ledge. A little way along the this ledge there were some rocks leading like steps to the top of the cliff. From here, vthe jaguar was able to enter he forest to hunt.The boy was excited by this discovery. He returned to the cave, and waited for the jaguar to return.
‘Some time in the night, the jaguar returned with a small deer. The deer was roasted on the fire and the jaguar and the boy ate their fill. Then the jaguar and the boy settled down to sleep.’
‘At dawn , the first rays of sunlight began to light up the cliff outside, but the cave was very dark. The jaguar awoke and looked about him. He wondered why the cave was so dark. And then, he discovered that his fire had disappeared. The jaguar looked around te cave for the boy, but he was too nowhere to be seen.
‘Meanwhile, in the settlement of the humans far below the cave on the cliff, the boy was being welcomed home by his family. They too looked in awe at the family; the fire that burnt brightly on the ground beside the boy;the fire that he had stolen from the jaguar.
‘And later, the boy showed them the bow and arrow, and he showed them how it could be used to kill an animal such as the jaguar, and how an nimal could be roasted on a fire?.’
The old man handed the piece of wood to Leon. Leon did not say anything. He sat and stared at the sleek, crouching jaguar in his hands. Its eyes glowed like embers in the black night.
-Adapted from the Oxford Reading Circle book 4 by NICHOLAS HORSBURGH
