National Geographic

butterflies from local mountaintops to collectorsaround the world. Today his morning startedin Makassar, a city at the island’s southwesterntip. A van carried him and several helpers on awinding road up from the lowland heat, throughjungle, and finally into a mountain villagewhere the road became too steep and slippery.There Jasmin moved his supplies and crew ontothe backs of a half dozen motorbikes, mostlydriven by small boys. The road crumbled andnarrowed into a path, which became a seriesof swinging bridges that could bear one motor-bike at a time, and which ended altogether atthe next village. From there everyone disem-barked, took up sacks of rice and jugs of water,and started to climb.It’s an arduous journey. But now, leaning onhis mud-testing staff, Jasmin breathes hardthrough an open smile. “Close now,” he says.Eventually the mountainside begins to shapeitself into terraced rice paddies, and Jasmin’sdestination appears above. It’s a hut he builthimself, raised high on stilts. One by one, heand his helpers climb a log to enter it.As the sun sets, Jasmin stretches out on thefloor of the hut. He’s middle-aged now, and haul-ing supplies gets harder every trip. Tomorrow,he says, the hunt will begin in earnest. For now,two women, one middle-aged and one younger,prepare dinner.Every word Jasmin speaks, every item hetouches, every memory he recollects centerson butterflies. He has studied, followed, andcaught them since an encounter with a foreignerBUTTERFLY CATCHERS 117