Originally, the jaguar, although well equipped with teeth and claws to be the best hunter in the jungle, made such a racket in the jungle that he never could get close to anything. He was getting weaker and weaker and was finally to the place where he was just sitting there waiting to die. Suddenly he heard a voice say. "I will teach you how to walk quietly if you will share your meat with me." The jaguar looked down and there was a centipede. He snarled, "how can you help me, what are you anyway?" The centipede finally convinced him by telling him size did not matter, it was all in how one placed his feet. Then he demonstrated and moved off with no sound. He talked the jaguar into getting on his back (the centipede's back).

Telling the jaguar to watch how he placed his feet, the centipede took off without a sound. After watching for a while, the jaguar stepped off the centipede's back and tried it. Much better! The centipede allowed him on his back for a second lesson and when the jaguar stepped down and headed into the jungle on his own, he was as quiet as death, which is what he became. That is why to this day, whenever a jaguar is feeding on his kill, you will always find the centipede sharing his meal with him and while the jaguar shares with no one, he does not even snarl at the centipede even though the centipede eats right where the jaguar is chewing.

~ M. Dawson, Missionary in Venezuela