Brazil is home to many colourful sayings that use everyday images to teach lessons about life. One of the most memorable is: “To prod the jaguar with a short stick.” In Brazilian Portuguese, the saying is “Cutucar a onça com vara curta.” At first, the image sounds almost humorous. Imagine someone approaching a jaguar, one of the most powerful animals in the Americas, and poking it with a short stick. It does not take much imagination to realise that this is probably not going to end well. That is exactly the point of the proverb.
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