Original illustration by Ralf Birch
Imagine a child that wants to take possession of a treasure,
and as simple as a child’s treasure can be, they can be unachievable, owned by
giants, guarded by tradition.
Imagine now that same child, having crossed oceans, explored
continents, still loving the same giants, and unsuspecting of the passing of
time, suddenly coming across the once much desired treasure.
I already told you about the farmhouse I grew in and about
the 1960’s vintage cabinet that there was in the front guest room and some of the
treasures that it contained, one of them a paper box that once encased a hunting
knife.
Ivete was a close friend to my mother that sometimes would
visit us at the farm. Ivete worked at the “Casa Bardaro” in Ribeirão Preto, a
very traditional hardware and home appliances store that did not survive the
turbulent evolution of the Brazilian economy during the 1980’s.
On one of her visits, in the early 1970’s, Ivete presented
my father, who at the time was a dedicated outdoorsman, with a hunting knife.
This knife was made by Mundial, a large Brazilian cutlery that unhappily no
longer makes sport knifes, and had a design inspired on some Puma skinners, and
was aptly named Cougar.
Although a cougar is a puma by any other name, and
vice-versa, this Cougar knife had a distinct personally. The blade is forged
from high carbon steel and then hard chromed; the handles or scales are some
kind of Brazilian hardwood and a long leather tong passed through an eye on the
tang. A leather sheath accompanied the knife. I remember an occasion when my
father took this knife on a duck hunt and lost it on his way back to the truck
and then backtracked through the swamp until he found it.
But if the Cougar knife was attractive its paper case was
fascinating. On the cover there was a picture of a high power bolt-action
scoped rifle and some bottlenecked cartridges on top of a jaguar or leopard
pelt.
All these things were rare and exotic for a child in my
situation. Brazilian gun laws being restrictive as they have always been and
American or African big spotted cats also not being available around the corner
(not that there were many street corners in the farm) made my imagination take
off. Compound that with a healthy dose of Tarzan comic books and movies and
stories generously supplied by my grandfather and you may see me flying from
our farm to the jungles of Mato Grosso and from there, to the savannahs of
Africa.
But children are careless with their treasures and one day that
box disappeared and the knife submerged in some obscure kitchen duty and the
years went by.
Just before Christmas of 1999 we visited our family farm in
Goiás state, central Brasil, just weeks before I relocated to the Netherlands
with my wife and children and as I snooped around drawers and cabinets I found
that Cougar knife, rusted, broken tip but never forgotten. I took it to the
shop, cleaned all the rust, reshaped the blade and sharpened it until it could
cut as well as a cougar can bite and let my father know I just had taken
possession of a treasure.
During the short three years that we lived in the
Netherlands I used the Cougar intensively, special on barbecues and when we
again relocated to the United States it came along with us.
But since the world is full of surprises this story is not
over yet.
One Saturday on the summer of 2004 I was looking things
around at a gun show in Kalamazoo, Michigan, when coming on to a table I saw a
card box with the picture a high power scoped rifle and some bottlenecked
cartridges on top of a jaguar or leopard pelt and inside it a brand new Cougar
knife.
After asking for the price of the knife I paid the amount so
fast I must have frightened the seller. I had to be quick or Cougar could get
away.
Clearly, that gentleman did not know that he had a treasure
on his hands. A treasure that, after 30 years, I now own.
Note from author:
This feature was first published as part of my book “A Wild
Beast at Heart” (www.publishamerica.com,
ISBN-10 1424147212) in 2006. During the launch ceremony of my second
book “Caçadas: Estórias e Outras Mentiras” my friend Eloir Mário Marcelino and
Colonel Trajano, both passionate hunters, book collectors and internet
scroungers were telling me that they were able to locate several Cougar knives at
“Mercado Livre” and other internet
shopping sites, and that both had bought a couple each. I understand that
Cougars are commanding a premium price, and I am very happy to have mine well
guarded for “ future generations”.
