Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

uins of the Maya city of Tikal. There Panti found his teacher, a mysterious
Carib named Jerónimo Requeña.
One evening, after the moon had risen, the crewmen sat around the
campfire drinking rum and telling boisterous stories. After a few drinks,
Jerónimo bragged that he had the power to transform himself into a jaguar.
The men grumbled and whispered to each other, goading him to prove his
boasts and become a wild cat in front of many witnesses.
Jerónimo grinned, then picked up his shotgun. “Do not move from this
circle. I will now walk into the forest. I will fire one shot and then you will
see a jaguar climb up that ceiba tree behind you. I will pause and look down
upon you, then I will disappear back into the jungle and return with the
morning light.”
With that, he slipped away from the campfire and tramped into the
forest until he was out of sight. The men flinched when a gunshot rang out.
Within minutes a massive, male jaguar crept into their view. The wild beast
dug his claws into the bark of the ceiba tree behind them and sprang up to a
sturdy branch high above their heads. A few men cried out, others crossed
themselves, and many more ran for cover. The jaguar’s eyes glowered,
watching them scramble behind trees to hide themselves. He opened his
cavernous mouth and roared ferociously, then crawled down the trunk and
bounded back into the jungle.
Panti was too excited to sleep that night, and he kept an eye on
Jerónimo’s empty hammock. He knew from childhood stories that a true
H’men could walk the night as a jaguar, totem of the H’men.
As sunlight cracked through the trees, Jerónimo appeared, with the
strong odor of wild cat about him. Jerónimo slept for the rest of the day
with his shotgun tucked under his arm.
A few weeks later, the rest of the crew left and Panti volunteered to stay
behind with Jerónimo to guard the tools and equipment. They camped in a
damp corner of one of Tikal’s ancient temples, shrouded now by tree roots
and formidable vines. “Over our heads were carvings in a mysterious
design done by my ancestors,” Panti said.
One night they roasted a monkey over a fire and got to talking. Panti
was afraid of Jerónimo, and it took him a while to gather up enough
courage to ask, “Tell me, paisano [countryman], do you know some
things?”