📸 Photo

anything sinister. It seemed more likely that it was the first time they had seen a monkey as funny-looking as me. All I could think about was how great it would be if I could trap one of them. I would let him smoke all night and have two weeks' supply of meat. I considered throwing stones at them but knew that would be pointless. They were too quick, and I was too weak. I watched them for hours as they performed acrobatics in the tree-tops above me, concentrating all my thoughts on the hope that one of them would miss a branch and fall on its head. I tried prayers and supplications – Let him fall, just one lousy monkey. Please let him fall – but that did no good. The monkeys went through their routines without a snag.

When it began to grow dark, I was overtaken with fear. I was completely unarmed, with nothing to protect myself apart from the fire. What if I fell asleep during the night and the fire went out? What if a jaguar was waiting nearby in ambush? What would I do? I looked for a long stick that I could use as a spear, but the branches were all dry and brittle. Feeling helpless and frightened, I gathered up more wood to feed the fire. Then I had a brilliant idea. I had once seen a movie in which a spray can was used as a flamethrower. I took the can of repellent and the lighter out of my pack. I held the lighter in my left hand, pushed down on the spray button with my right, and lit the lighter. It worked. The spray caught fire and gave off a large flame. I prepared