The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-04-16
them, ate them and piled them up

about me.
Hope was raised again. Yet I
could not move, and my only chance
was that some one would find me.
Days passed, and T fingered on. I
had ding hole with my free hand,
and enough water oozed through to
sustain me, while the fishes that still
crawled by me provided me with
food. How long it wss know not,
but one day I saw above che trees
smoke, and 1 knew that my people
were near. I was tc,c weak to cry
aloud, so I lay and watched. The
fishes still went on, and I passed
the hours by counting them and
watching their curious ways. They
used the two fiis like arms or legs,
sometimes topping over upon their
sides, now entering the little pools
to refresh themselves, but soon leay-
ing the water to crawl along again.
'While / watched them it came to
me that they were going to the
mouth of the river to avoid the
drought, and could I not send a
message to my people? It was an
easy matter to tear my shirt, and
with my teeth I shaped bits of white
cloth until [ had hundred or more.
Then began to catch the fish, Ev-
cry one that passed me left with a
bit of white cloth pushed upon the
spine Of it's upper fin. The next
day l did the same, and for three
days I sent these messengers to my
people. The fish were black, senior,
and the white cloth could be seen
quite a distance.
sThe days went by, how many I
know not, when one night I dream
ed that I saw my friends. I awoke
to see great light and in the center
the one I loved best. Then I must
have died Of JOY. But I lived, se-
nor" And here the tall Indian
threw his arm about a young girl
whose dark eyes cleaned with ter
Tor at the memories aroused. "She,
my wife, found me, and the message
was carried to her by the hassars.
So, senior, the fish saved my life,
brought me my wife. What would
you have me do? Forget them? I
think not"
Such was the romance and almost
tragedy of Salvadea. He had been
crushed by the tree for nearly two
weeks. His people had searched far
and near without success, end when
the canoe was found it was supposed
he had fallen overheard and was
lost. But there was one who did not
give up. She wandered farther
down the stream than the others
and one day pushed her canoe up q
little stream, rapidly growing dry,
to catch turtle. Here she was at
tracted by the hassars that were
coming down overland and escaping
into the main water. While she
watched them she noticed one with
a white object upon its fin, then an
other. Catching the fish, she saw
that it was no accident, but an in
territorial decoration. Following up,
she saw others and soon recognized
the fact that it was message from
some one, possibly the lost one.
Up the stream she went, sinking
in the soft mud over which the
fishes had safely passed, crossing
quicksands, leaping from trunk to
trunk until she finally found her
lover apparently dead-so near it
that it was months before he walk
ed. With her hands she dug the
sand and mud away and then bore
his emaciated form, breaking pas
sage through the lanes, to the
camp. No wonder he looked at her
with loving eyes, and no wonder he
protected the hassars.
Salvadea's story might seem a fic-
ton of the Amazon, but the habit
of the hassars and other catfshes of
leaving the water and crawling over
land is common one and is equally
well known in India in the climbing
perch. The fish do not carry water
in their gills during these overland
journeys, as is generally supposed,
but breathe air and for the time are
true arcpb;bians. it