Paragraph 1. “I’m not so worried about time anymore,” I said.

Paragraph 2. He smiled. “Good! You are making progress. Come with me.”

Paragraph 3. He led me to a tree not far from the camp.

Paragraph 4. “You must climb as high as you can and find a comfortable branch where you can look out over the savanna.” He handed me the water gourd. “You will need this.”

Paragraph 5. I took the gourd. “What about you?”

Paragraph 6. “I will be too busy to drink,” he said.

Paragraph 7. I didn’t know what he meant by this, but I climbed the bone-dry tree anyway and found a large branch near the top that was comfortable.

Paragraph 8. “Can you see the grass of the savanna?” Supeet yelled up to me.

Paragraph 9. “Yes,” I shouted back.

Paragraph 10. “Good! What else do you see?”

Paragraph 11. Here we go again, I thought. I looked carefully. Shimmering waves of heat created mirages in the distance. I saw three kopjes¹ within a half mile of each other. Trees dotted the landscape, and there were several small groups of animals grazing on the dry grass of the savanna. About a hundred and fifty yards away, a herd of zebras took advantage of the shade of an acacia tree. A few hundred feet past the herd were a few more trees and underneath them were two rhinoceroses sleeping. I told Supeet what I saw.

Paragraph 12. “Watch me,” he said. “And remember this will take some time. If you lose track of where I am, look to the zebras and work your way back to where you last saw me.”

Paragraph 13. “I will,” I said, still confused about what was going on.

Paragraph 14. Supeet walked briskly out into the savanna, then stopped. He slipped off his sandals and shuka,² then reached down for something I couldn’t quite see and rubbed it all over his body. When he was finished he lay down and rolled on the ground, then got back to his feet. From head to toes he was covered with red dust and blended in perfectly with his surroundings.

Paragraph 15. For several minutes he stood perfectly still, looking at the zebras beneath the acacia tree, then he began to move very slowly in their direction. His movement reminded me of the mimes I had seen in Central Park. Each step was exaggerated and painfully slow. Sometimes he froze midstep, holding his leg up for several minutes, before putting his foot gently on the ground. The closer he got to the zebras the slower he went. Twice I took my eyes off him and had trouble finding him again.

Paragraph 16. When he was twenty-five feet away from the zebras they still gave no sign that they knew he was there. It was incredible! They swished their tails at the flies and looked out over the savanna as if nothing were happening. I waited for Supeet to rush in on them, but instead, he moved even more slowly. In fact, the only way I could tell he was moving was by looking at the spot he had previously occupied. He literally inched his way toward them. I wondered how long it had taken him to perfect this technique. If Supeet could make himself essentially invisible, he could do just about anything—including make it rain.

Paragraph 17. Finally, he was close enough to one zebra to touch it. Which he did, slapping it on the butt. The zebras jumped around in confusion, then in panic bolted across the savanna. Supeet stood under the acacia tree laughing at the joke he had played on them.

Paragraph 18. I climbed down and jogged over to him. When I got up to him I told him that it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.

Paragraph 19. “It’s actually a game,” he said. “When we were boys we practiced with rhinoceroses when they were asleep. The first boy places a rock on the rhinoceros’s back without waking it. The next boy takes the first boy’s rock and places his own rock on the back and so on, until someone makes a mistake and wakes the rhinoceros.”

Paragraph 20. And my parents used to worry about some of the things my friends and I did in New York City!

Paragraph 21. “It’s great fun,” Supeet said. “Until the animal wakes up, that is.” He laughed. “Rhinoceroses are easy. Rhinoceroses have few enemies and are not as alert as animals that are preyed upon. The tribe taught me to stalk many other animals.”

Paragraph 22. “You must be exhausted,” I said.

Paragraph 23. “I could use a drink of water.”

Paragraph 24. I handed him the gourd, and he took a big drink.

Paragraph 25. “Would you like to learn?”

Paragraph 26. “Yes!”

Paragraph 27. “All right,” he said. “But by the time we finish, it will be too late to travel.”

Paragraph 28. “I don’t care.”

Paragraph 29. “Good! We will stalk the rhinoceroses by those trees. Try not to wake them, though.”

Paragraph 30. Good safety tip, I thought.