212 DAHLAK 



Folco wanted to take some photographs in natural 

 surrounding^, so he placed the octopus on a sandy patch 

 near a block of madrepore. In less than a minute a fourth 

 octopus came out of the block, slowly and cautiously. We 

 stayed to watch. The fourth was the same size as the others. 

 It drew up to its kinsman pierced with the arrow, felt it, took 

 it by one of its tentacles and began dragging it into its own 

 nest. If we had not stopped it, it would have robbed us. Did 

 it want to save its kind or put it in the cupboard and dine 

 when ready? We tried putting the captured octopus in the 

 same place, and once again the fourth one came out of its 

 nest, felt the victim, took it by the arm and began dragging 

 it back into the hole. Both Folco and I shot a complete 

 photographic record of this strange affair. 



Anyway two octopuses ended up in formalin. Two obser- 

 vations led me to connect the rarity of octopuses in the Red 

 Sea with the great number of groupers. One is the quantity 

 of ink that they emit: this highly intensified method of 

 defence suggests to me greater survival difficulties. Secondly, 

 the four octopuses that we discovered were not near the reef 

 but among the scattered blocks on the terrace. It is known 

 that groupers live exclusively on the reef and never on the 



terrace in front. 



* 



Sailors say that when the Devil has a hand in things there is 

 nothing to be done. For negroes this is absolute dogma. It is 

 dogma now for Folco and me. 



When the Formica used to come to keep us going with 

 supplies at Dur Ghella two people, Silverio and Gigi, pre- 

 sided over operations with notebook and pencil. On this 

 particular day neither of them was present. Silverio was in 

 hospital at Asmara with otitis and Gigi was in hospital at 



