Encounter with Papa Bois

In a moment his headlight reflected from a pair of eyes in a cluster of wild pines. Papito shot right between the eyes. The manicou fell through the vines as it screamed out in anguish; but in a coarse, human voice, “Oh! Gawd Oye!” Papito cringed in horror. He stepped back cautiously and hurried away in the opposite direction; he whispered,

“Boy Gawd, dat is ah jumbie manicou! Ah better go home right now. Dis is ah bad sign.” He regretted not listening to his wife’s appeal to remain at home that day.

As he weaved his way homeward, he accidently tripped on some vines, when his headlight touched upon leaves and branches. Suddenly, he discerned a huge head, with bulging eyes staring at him from the fork of a branch. Impulsively, he took aim; but froze in fear and wonder, for it was not the head of any familiar beast; though very beast-like they were.

He discerned the big head of a human man with large angry eyes; stiff-pulled, determined lips and pleats of anger across his forehead; thick shaggy hair, mop-like on his head and flowed down to moustaches and beard.

The leaves of the tree massed from the neck to conceal the body; if there were any.

The confounded hunter rushed away from the terrifying spectacle. Having reached some distance away, he rested under a tree in a little clearing; still in the grips of horror, he kept vigil until morning. He got up with a sigh and set out for home. Papito was considered the master hunter of the Arima Hills. In fact, the Carib chieftain blood flowed through his veins for he was a descendant of the Acariwana or Carib chief, and was still regarded as the Acariwana among the vestige Carib population, which then, huddled in rustic, thatched huts on a little plateau on the hill of old Arima.

It was just past about 11 o’clock in the day, when Papito was abruptly confronted by a most unusual man or beast. That was the most feared Papa Bois; the father of the forest and protector of all the wild animals of the forest. He was short, stocky and seemingly, powerful in statue.

Generally, his appearance was that of a human man and yet seemed of the lower animal order.

His body covered with hair resembling that of a donkey’s; his feet were really split hoofs like that of a deer; long loose beard streamed from his face; He stood slightly crouched, like an ape.

Papito froze in his tracks, staring fearfully at Papa Bois.

The strange being fixed his stare at the terrified hunter. There was a questioning look and a taut pull on the face of Papa Bois who, finally asked?

“Who is you? And w’at yuh doin’ in dis forest?” Papito stuttered, “I is Papito, ah old Carib from Arima, and Ah was just goin’ home.” Papa Bois pointed to the gun.

“An’ w’at yuh doin’ wid dat gun in yuh han’?” Papito shifted his weight uneasily, and with a wry grimace on his face, he replied, “Ah just carryin’it home.”

“Yuh know who is me?” asked Papa Bois.

“No, Ah donno who yuh is.”

Papa Bois voice deepened: “Ah is de Papa Bois; faddah orf dis forest. Ah proteck all de beasts and birds orf de forest. Ah is also de doctor for dese animals and dem; and when allyuh hunters come and damage dese poor animals. Is me who have to heal dem wid wild bush and herbs. It does break mih heart to see dese animals suffer under allyuh cruel hunters. Yuh lost yuh way Ah suppose!”

“Yes Mr Papa Bois,” shivered the terrified hunter. Papa Bois pointed a direction. He commanded: “Awrite, you follow mih, Ah will show yuh de way out.”

Papito followed him to a little clearing. In the centre of that clearing was a crude table constructed from small logs leashed together on four legs, which were sunken in the earth.

On opposite sides of the log table was a bench, similarly constructed. Papa Bois seated the hunter on one bench while he sat on the opposite bench.