Move over, Jacques Cousteau. Step back, Sir Edmund Hillary. Backoff, Thor Heyerdahl. Make way for Douchan Gersi, world-class explorer, filmmaker, anthropologist, and writer of a new book aptly titled Explorer ($18.95, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.).
The forty-year-old Czechoslovakian-born explorer, who speaks seven languages fluently and is proficient in a dozen more, has a tale to tell. In 1977, he was living with the Masai, a pastoral Kenyan tribe, hoping to witness a young Masai's rite of passage. Gersi recalls it in his inimitable style, with a French accent:
"A Masai says, 'Do you want to come with us? You can. One condition. Show us your bravery.'
"I said, 'OK.'
"He said: 'Could you stop an elephant that is charging you?'"
Gersi thought it was a joke and said, "Yes."
Five days later, the warriors were packing for the lion hunt. Gersi said, "I go." The warrior said, "We go.... You did not prove your bravery."
He was told that he would be tested the following morning.
Then Gersi realized, "Oh! Oh! That was not a joke." He paced the village wondering if they would really test him. He thought: "I'm a fool if I do it, because I will be killed; or I will just run away.... But why did I come? To see it [the hunt]. I am spending valuable time of my life here. I am staying.
"Then a Masai boy says to me: 'Heh, everybody's telling me that you are stopping an elephant tomorrow.' I said, 'Yah.' He says, 'Will you use your way or our way?'
"'My way.'
"'What's your way?'
"'First, tell me yours.'
"So he told me: It's very easy. An elephant have no good eyesight, so when he attacks, he is always making himself appear bigger--ears open, head up, and making a big noise. Make yourself small when the elephant attacks, because he can't see well. So when elephant is twenty feet away, jump, screaming, thrashing your arms, and you will see the elephant stop and turn around.'
"'What's your way?' the Masai asked.
"'The same,' Gersi said.
"The next morning the elephants are there, they (the Masai) excite the baby, the mother starts to attack. They yell, 'Elephant!'; make a big noise. So I am crouching. At the last moment, I jump, scream, thrash my arms. I was seeing a huge mass charging at me. I can't run. I am paralyzed. Then the elephant makes a U-turn.
"A Masai comes to me and says, 'Heh, good. You good.'
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