Seflor Alcatraz and the Catfish 245 



saw a big fish which had been left by the falling tide in a 

 little pool of water. It was a blue-colored fish, with a large 

 bony head, and no scales, and a sleek, slippery skin. He 

 did not know that it was a bagre, but thought that all fishes 

 were good to eat, so he opened his mouth and slipped the 

 fish, tail first, down into his pouch. It went all right for 

 a while, but when the fish woke up and knew he was being 

 swallowed, he straightened out both of his arms, and there 

 he was. For the bagre is a kind of catfish, and each arm is 

 a long stiff, sharp bone, or spine, with a saw edge the whole 

 length of it. And all the bagre has to do is just to put this 

 arm out straight and twist it at the shoulder, and then it is 

 set, and no animal can bend or break it. And it pierced 

 right through the skin of the bird's sac, and the bird could 

 not swallow it, nor make it go up nor down, and the bagre 

 held on tight, for he knew that if he let go once he would 

 be swallowed and that would be the last of him. 



So the bird tried everything he could think of, and the 

 fish held on, and they kept it up all day. In the afternoon 

 a little boy came out on the sands. His name was Inocente, 

 and he was the son of Ygnacio, the fisherman of Mazatlan. 

 And Inocente took a club of mangrove and ran up to the 

 struggling bird, and struck it on the wing with the club. 

 The club broke the wing and the bird lay down to die, for 

 with a broken wing and a fish that would not go up nor 

 down, there was no hope for him. 



When Inocente saw what kind of a fish it was, he knew 

 just what to do. He reached down into the bird's sac, and 

 took hold of the fish's spine. He gave each bone a twist 

 so that it rolled over in its socket, the upper part toward 

 the fish's head, and then they were not stiff any more, but 

 lay flat against the side of the fish, just as they ought to lie. 

 Then the fish knew that it had found a master, and lay 

 perfectly still. Soon the bird gave a great gulp and out the 

 bagre went on the sand, and when the tide came up it swam 

 away, and took care never to go again where a bird could 



