Page 347 - The Tigris Expedition

From Asia to Africa; from Meluhha to Punt
The wind strengthened and see sailed
the dolphins also increased their speed was at g, ^
luminescent wakes were drawn out in leng , * f r stable

es in
and
the procession, their long undulating comet tails crossing
interlacing in beautiful patterns.
At the first sign of daylight, when the procession broke up, the
few that remained would circle around and under us as it awake
after a night’s sleep. We saw the others at a distance, usually in pairs
or three at a time, jumping sideways out of the water in pursuit of
glittering flying-fish. For days on end we had the company also of a
few long-flying boobies, and it was a common sight to see these
sea-birds fly low in front of a hunting dolphin, ready to dive and
snatch the escaping flying-fish as soon as it took to the air, leaving
the bewildered dolphin to scuttle about below looking in vain for
the fish that never came back from the sky.
We wondered much why the dispersed hunters came back to us
at night to take up their sleep-walker procession. Carlo theorised
that they had discovered the rain of flying-fish close to Tigris at
night. They swam so closely packed on port side that with mouths
open one of them would always get whatever failed to land on deck.
But why always assemble on port side? The moon rose on port side
and lit up the golden ship on that side in the early evening before the
whole procession fell asleep. There were many guesses, but cer­
tainly the dolphins herded together like sheep as if for safety during
the night, probably finding Tigris a large and friendly protector,
each hoping that another of the flock might become the prey and
sound alarm in case of surprise attack during their sleep-walkine
They had enemies in the Schlaraffen-See that could swallow them
whole, the way they themselves could swallow half a dozen
tlying-fish in one gulp.
Saum8Jal0n8 °ne night with our host of luminescent ghosts I

sea
saSSr-*-*

their phosphorocent wakes until they all loo£frl?r,SjPr°IOnS':d
serpents, bn, the torpedo 8rew ,o iSffiK
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