DISSEI, BROWN ISLAND 57 



open it turned upon its assailant. Alberto was quick enough 

 to confront it with the unloaded gun and it let its steam off 

 on this, leaving its tooth marks well imprinted on the 

 aluminium barrel. Then it weaved itself into another crack 

 and with head still out and eyes aflame it was ready, despite 

 its wound, to launch a counter-attack. Alberto, however, had 

 had enough, and decided to withdraw. These morays can 

 weigh up to twenty-six or twenty-eight pounds. 



A similar thing happened to Gigi, with an eighteen-pound 

 moray which, bent on revenge, burst from its den thirty feet 

 down, and pursued Gigi almost to the surface. Luckily the 

 unloaded gun again took the full force of the animal's wrath. 

 One day, Cecco was scraping away in a hole with his bare 

 hand when the head of a moray suddenly darted forward from 

 inside. He withdrew his hand just in time. If it had been 

 bitten in this way by a twenty-pound moray he would most 

 probably not have got it out again. Morays have teeth bent 

 inwards like serpents', designed to grip the prey till it is torn 

 to pieces. But he would not have had to wait to be torn to 

 pieces ; helpless in that iron grip he would soon have suffo- 

 cated and drowned. 



I, too, once found myself téte-à-téte with a moray. I was 

 swimming unarmed at dusk in dim and dirty water looking 

 for molluscs, when suddenly I came face to face with the 

 beast not six feet down. Rather than upset the fellow I tried 

 to slip away without being seen. But no, he got wind of me, 

 and swivelled round, pointing himself at me, glaring un- 

 mercifully. He then blew out his neck like a cobra while 

 those charming jaws opened and shut rhythmically. I 

 wasn't too happy I must confess, all alone, with not even a 

 knife on me, and the boat miles away. Suddenly I did an 

 instinctive splash backwards, an act that in cold blood I 

 would have probably not considered wise. It was enough to 



