You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Jerónimo looked over suspiciously and asked him to explain what he<br />
meant by “things.” Panti said he wanted to learn about the healing plants.<br />
He explained about his father—a curandero who had wasted his gifts on<br />
black magic and refused to teach him.<br />
He continued to press Jerónimo until the old Carib wearily answered,<br />
“Yes, yes, I know of these things, but I have no patience for healing people.<br />
They make me crazy. I don’t mind patching up the chicleros, but I hide in<br />
these camps to get away from sick people.”<br />
The reflection of the fire flickered in the Carib’s eyes as he turned and<br />
stared deeply into Panti’s. “Do you have patience, boy?” he growled.<br />
Without a moment’s hesitation, Panti promised he was indeed patient<br />
and dependable. “Healing is what my interest is. Always I wanted to know,<br />
papasito. Please, will you teach me?”<br />
Jerónimo turned his face back toward the yellow flames and remained<br />
silent for a moment more. He looked into the black of the bush and then<br />
spoke.<br />
“There is no rest for the healer. Night and day they will come to your<br />
hut <strong>with</strong> their sad stories, their sickness. Their troubles are plenty. People do<br />
not understand the healer and often mistrust us. When we heal what the<br />
doctors cannot, the doctors call us brujos, witches, and whisper lies about<br />
us. They say we work <strong>with</strong> the devil. It is a lonely life, I warn you.”<br />
Panti kept nodding that he understood full well, and he continued to<br />
prod Jerónimo until the recalcitrant old man was won over by the young<br />
chiclero’s persistence. “Then I will teach you. Right now. Right here in the<br />
forest, where all the plants grow and the Spirits live.”<br />
There, deep in the thick, steamy jungles of Petén, his birthplace, Panti<br />
began his training as a curandero. He and Jerónimo searched out herbs,<br />
trees, vines, and roots. Panti had never learned to read or write, so he put<br />
everything Jerónimo said into his head. Each night by the campfire, they<br />
reviewed the day’s lessons.<br />
Jerónimo had him taste plants, make teas and powders out of them, and<br />
learn to recognize many of them while blindfolded. As Panti progressed,<br />
Jerónimo also taught him the <strong>Maya</strong> healing prayers that he had learned<br />
from his teacher and believed dated back to the ancient <strong>Maya</strong> H’men.<br />
Jerónimo instructed Panti to have no relations <strong>with</strong> his wife whenever<br />
he was to cure a gravely ill patient or he would lose his power and she