132 DAHLAK 



When the fish was 'piloting' us it never tried to stay in our 

 shadow. The mystery remains. 



Now to get back to my pilot. It plonked itself in front of 

 the glass of my mask with a lightning swish as if it wanted to 

 catch me by surprise. And it stayed there. It stayed there for 

 at least an hour, and in that hour I found myself at close 

 quarters with three sharks, all of whom looked quite hungry 

 for my pilot. He however, was evidently quite satisfied with 

 my company (after all escorting a fish of that class was not 

 an everyday event) and he did not move an inch. In that 

 hour I made twenty dives, and in going down and coming up 

 the pilot remained right near my mask. I reached a point 

 when I could stand it no longer. I made my first attempts at 

 catching it without success, then I got mad and lashed out 

 with my fists. I tried shooting, grabbing it, biting its back, 

 spitting on it — no effect. Happy, imperturbable and as 

 tenacious as a flea, the cursed beast would not leave me. 

 Finally, with a shout of indignation, I went back on board. 

 The pilot watched me from below, dumbfounded. Then he 

 went off, and I swear I saw him shake his head in con- 

 sternation. 



The pilot fish officially demonstrated with Gigi and 

 Silverio, as well as with me, that, for him, we men are fish. 

 And since the pilot fish cannot be singled out as a fish with 

 original ideas, it is fairly certain that we were fish to other 

 fish too. This is a deduction that should not be ignored, since 

 it is only in the light of this that we can explain the attitude 

 of certain dangerous marine animals towards us. Obviously 

 they took us for fish they had never seen before, curious fish 

 to be treated with suspicion. The diffidence and all the other 

 reactions we observed, especially in the case of sharks, take 

 on a new significance when seen in this light. 



