And tame and fearless they were, as the first fish that swam in Euphrates; hardly evading the hand; insomuch that Samoa caught many without lure or line.
They formed a decorous escort; paddling along by our barnacled sides, as if they had been with us from the very beginning; neither scared by our craft's surging in the water; nor in the least sympathetic at losing a comrade by the hand of Samoa.

They closed in their ranks and swam on.
How innocent, yet heartless they looked! Had a plank dropped out of our boat, we had sunk to the bottom; and belike, our cheerful retinue would have paid the last rites to our remains.
But still we kept company; as sociably as you please; Samoa helping himself when he listed, and Yillah clapping her hands as the radiant creatures, by a simultaneous turning round on their silvery bellies, caused the whole sea to glow like a burnished shield.
But what has befallen this poor little Boneeta astern, that he swims so toilingly on, with gills showing purple?
What has he there, towing behind?
It is tangled sea-kelp clinging to its fins.

But the clogged thing strains to keep up with its fellows.

Yet little they heed.

Away they go; every fish for itself, and any fish for Samoa.
At last the poor Boneeta is seen no more.