l6o DAHLAK 



Cecco, the boor, banged the armour of the male; he bounced 

 up, giving us all a soaking, and fled to the bottom of the sea 

 followed by his consort. 



North ofEntedebir. I was in the water with my two colleagues, 

 although some way from them, looking for a group of 

 *cefaloni' which I had just noticed. I climbed on to a madre- 

 pore block holding a sort of bream on the end of the harpoon 

 and looked around for the clear fins. No sign of them. As I 

 put my head underwater again I found a black-fin staring 

 at me motionless. It was about five feet long and only a few 

 yards off. At this stage black-fins made me neither hot nor 

 cold. I decided to try an experiment — the 'shark call'. I 

 gave out a terrific yell (underwater, naturally). According 

 to legend the black-fin should have vaporized. Instead, it 

 was still there, watching me in a stupefied way with its 

 yellow eyes. I changed tactics and punched out with my 

 arm. The black-fin turned its head away quickly, half 

 closed its mouth and stared at me with one eye. I could feel 

 it exploring right into my guts. We looked straight into each 

 other's eyes without understanding each other. Then I 

 remembered that the gold and silver striped bream was still 

 on the end of the harpoon. The black-fin then was waiting 

 just for this. Perhaps I could offer him the meal and grab 

 him while he was feeding. I began to loosen the harpoon, 

 keeping one eye on the shark. But while doing so the bream, 

 disturbed by all the movement, made one last effort at 

 liberating itself and dropped into one of my hands, planting 

 its dorsal bones between my fingers. I flung it away in- 

 stinctively and bream, arrow and gun landed almost on top 

 of the shark. This time it really did vaporize. 



