CUNDABILU 131 



The first fish to greet me at Cundabilu was the celebrated, 

 illustrious pilot fish, the one, so they say, that ^pilots' the 

 shark. I noticed it gliding past my nose as I was surveying 

 the sea bottom from the surface. It was as long as my hand. 

 It recalled the strange experience that Silverio had had with 

 a pilot fish some days before. The pilot fish had behaved with 

 Silverio as it behaves with whales, wagging its tail in front of 

 him wherever he went, without leaving him for one moment. 

 Silverio pretended to ignore it, but this finned guide re- 

 mained stuck to the glass of his mask for almost an hour, 

 until Silverio, who had become quite cock-eyed and was on 

 the verge of going crazy, had to leave the water. 



Now why does the pilot fish remain in front of so many 

 selaceans, including mantas and even the biggest grouper? 

 Several reasons have been suggested, but none of them is 

 entirely convincing. It is absurd to imagine that the pilot 

 fish can really guide sharks to their prey, because when the 

 shark is attacking, it is so much faster than the pilot fish that 

 it would leave it hundreds of yards behind. It requires a 

 further stretch of the imagination to accept the theory that 

 the pilot follows the shark to 'pick up the crumbs'. They say 

 that the shark slices and swallows. It does not therefore leave 

 crumbs, but only the tail stump and some blood. And what 

 would a pilot fish get from a manta which swallows, without 

 biting, a diet of plankton and microscopic organisms ? There 

 are others who suppose that the pilot fish follows big sharks 

 to gain protection from its personal enemies. To this it may 

 be said that a hare has never been known to seek protection 

 from a fox near the claws of a wolf On the other hand it has 

 been observed that this enigmatic character behaves with 

 boats and small sailing ships, wrecks and drift-floats in the 

 same way as it behaves with sharks. Could it be seeking shade 

 from the sun? Our direct experience disproves this theory. 



