20 DAHLAK 



advantage of lying a few dozen miles from a good base, 

 Massawa, and finally it was notoriously rich in fauna and 

 coral formations of extreme interest. 



It would not be going too far to say that the Red Sea is 

 perhaps the strangest and therefore the least known of the 

 seas of the globe. Its coastlands are desert, stripped by the 

 sun, and desiccated by salt and coral left behind by the 

 retreating sea. It is also an unapproachable coast because of 

 the uninterrupted series of rocks and coralline islands which 

 rise barely above the surface of the sea like the yellow backs 

 of huge cetaceans. Only the central strip is free from coral 

 formations and vessels take good care not to deviate from it. 



Almost bare of ports, suffocated in warm and humid 



vapours, salt as an anchovy, burning as a hot bath, bluer 



than most seas, the Red Sea has yet other characteristics 



that make it in some ways even mysterious. It is a sea of 



legends and witchcraft, a sea on whose islands the Dahlakians 



fear to tread, (for on them you die, they say, and in truth 



many have died), a tongue of hot water between Asia and 



Africa that has gathered unto itself the secret soul, the 



kaleidoscopic images of two continents. The Red Sea has 



fish that belong to it alone, animals of uncertain origin and 



mysterious metamorphosis evolved over millions of years ; it 



hides creatures unique in the world and receives others from 



the Indian Ocean and even the Mediterranean: it is the 



Paris of the world's oceans. 



* 



*Mr. Gianni, there! You see? Shark!' 



Mohammed pointed towards a sharp line of clear-cut fins 

 on the surface. They circled round and round as if searching 

 for an entrance through the rocks of Sheikh Said, the island 

 that sprouts from the sea three-quarters of a mile from 



