Page 363 - The Tigris Expedition

From Asia to Africa; from Meluhha to Punt
sides. We had barely recovered from our surprise, roared wi
laughter and begun singing ‘Happy birthday’, when there were
unexpected visitors: black whales surfaced and came rolling
straight towards us. We saw only three side by side, but there were
probably more, as for a while the huge mammals came up at inter­
vals everywhere. For the first time for weeks the little mouse came
running up into view, as if it had a peep-hole down below and for a
moment preferred the company of singing men and grasshoppers.
Our intimate association with these large marine mammals
wo uld probably account for our inheritance of the largest remora-
fish we had ever known. Black, floppy and ugly, with an oval
suction disc at the top of the head, the remoras are too smart to
bother to swim with their own tails more than necessary to change
transport. They hitch-hike on hard-skinned, scaleless travellers,
like sharks, whales and turtles. Hanging on with the fine device at
the top of the head, their mouths are free to enjoy spillings from
their host. Most of the remoras hitch-hiking on our bundles were
finger size, but a couple must have come to us from a whale, for
those that clung to our bottom were as long as an outstretched arm.
Once, to our surprise, Asbjorn lifted a sea-turtle out of the ocean
with his bare hands. It seemed intent to come and visit us anyhow.
We kept it on deck for a while and dreamed of turtle soup and
simulated roast veal, but by unanimous vote we preferred to watch
him swim happily away. For ancient voyagers in this ocean sea
turtles must have provided a welcome change from the Fish and
dried food diet. Today they have been almost exterminated,
although we saw the periscope-like heads of a few. Three days after
Asbjorn’s success, Rashad on a calm day swam into the sea and
somehow managed to grab the big carapace of another turtle.
Turtle and boy proved to be equally good swimmers, and it was
unclear to the spectators whether the turtle pulled or Rashad pushed
as they approached Tigris more below than above the surface. But
when the young Arab triumphantly managed to lift the struggling

55. A dangerous calm trapped Tigris in a current bound for a
forbidden coast.
■ 56. Waiting for wind. Inside the bamboo cabins, we sleep on
asphalt-covered boxes containing our personal property; radio
operator Norman hands the microphone to Yuri, who speaks to a
Russian ham station, asking help from his Foreign Office to persuade
outh Yemen to give us a landing permit for the forbidden island of
oocotra.
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