Actually, Diconi was not the only strange fish. History knew of some of the gold miners who hunted in the Californian Maiav Desert, who also had an interesting encounter with a strange fish. Fish in the desert is always a curiosity, whether in modern times or in the historical past, especially in such an arid desert as Maiav, which does not know moisture most of the year. There are no lakes or rivers worthy of mention. However, everything changes when the rainy season arrives and torrents of water pour into the hills and canyons. A real flood begins, such that even a whale can drown in it.
One summer, two prospectors wandered there in search of gold: an Italian with the Scottish name Pat McCarthy and a Scot with the Italian name Antonio Giacomini. Wonderful, isn't it? But everything got miraculously mixed up during that turbulent time of the gold rush.
Two friends built a miserable hut on the side of a canyon where they hoped to find gold. But there was no water in those places for many miles around, although they took with them one barrel for drinking, but that was almost empty.
On one particularly hot day, they went down into the canyon in search of gold and found a good nugget. Inspired by their success, they continued to search and found several more precious pieces. They were so carried away that they did not notice how they had gone far, far away from their hut and how their flasks were empty. There was just enough time left before sunset to reach the hut before dark. However, before turning back, they built an identification mark of stone, wood and cacti at the place where they found the gold.
They were almost at the house when the sky suddenly became covered with purple clouds and lightning streaked across it like a fiery snake. The clouds opened and rain poured down onto the scorched desert. Unfortunately, there was no grass or trees that would hasten to drink in the blissful moisture. Stormy rivers rushed across the sandy land. Water streams also gushed from the slopes of the canyon, straight towards McCarthy and Giacomini. They twisted them, spun them and took them away with them. The poor gold miners fought with all their might to swim out.
Finally the stream broke through the canyon. McCarthy accidentally grabbed something slippery with his hand. Fearing that it was a snake, he threw it over his shoulder, and it plopped straight onto the shore. However, when the imaginary snake flashed in the air, McCarthy managed to see that it was not a snake at all, but a fish. A moment later, both of them, that is, McCarthy and his partner, were surrounded by hundreds of fish. They were also washed out of the canyon by the stream, but they seemed even more helpless in the water than their fellow miners, and tried to climb onto their shoulders.
McCarthy and Giacomini discovered that they had been carried to a sandy basin in which a lake had now formed. Barely breathing, they nevertheless reached the bottom with their feet near the shore. The fish fought and fluttered, trying to stay close to them.
Isn't fried fish in the middle of the desert a delicacy? Friends began to grab the fish and throw it onto the sandy shore.
Completely exhausted, McCarthy quit this activity.
“I had heard about fish rain before,” he admitted, “but only now did I believe in such a miracle.” We've had enough, we've got enough fish for the whole week!
“This fish didn’t come from the sky at all,” Giacomini noted. – This is a completely different fish, it is humpbacked. Only in the Maiav Desert is there such a fish - the humpback cantina. She lives in small barrels scattered across the sandy plain. Haven't you noticed how strange she looks?
Only then did McCarthy take a closer look at the fish that surrounded him from all sides. What a miracle, the fish had a real hump on their back, just like a camel!
Giacomini hooked another fish, but was in no hurry to throw it ashore.
“See how she has a cantina on her back, like a tank?” She keeps spare water in it. This fish senses when the water in the barrel is about to dry up, and collects it in its tank, and then walks across the entire desert until it encounters another barrel with fresh water. I think she can smell water twenty miles away, maybe more. These poor creatures must have been crossing the canyon just as the rain started pouring down. They are afraid of deep water. If we hadn't thrown almost all the fish ashore, they would have simply drowned, you know?
- But when did you manage to find out everything about the hunchbacked cantina? – McCarthy was surprised.
- Just now! - answered Giacomini. – I saw and understood everything.
At this time, one fish, which was still in the water, looked pleadingly at McCarthy. McCarthy took pity and threw her ashore, joining the others.
And only then did he suddenly realize that, in fact, he and Giacomini had thrown fish onto the shore to arrange a glorious feast! But leaving them in the water now meant dooming them to certain death, which is why they looked at their fellow miners with such despair that they were afraid of drowning.
No, it was impossible to bear their pained looks, and McCarthy and Giacomini set about saving the rest of the fish. And when the water gradually subsided and sank into the sand, they themselves managed to get ashore.
The saved cantina was all crowded upstairs. Happiness and gratitude were written on their faces, and the fellow miners discarded any thought of using them for their feast.
Instead, they ran quickly to another reservoir, where there was still a lot of water left, filled their flasks and hurried with them to the hut. There they poured the water from the flasks into the barrel and returned to the receding water for a second helping. After all, they needed water not only for drinking, they also had to wash the sand taken from the canyon in order to extract gold from it.
They really wanted to get rich in order to return home with victory: the Italian with the Scottish name McCarthy to his sunny Italy, and the Scot with the Italian name Giacomini to wooded Scotland.
When they came to the reservoir for the third time, they realized the futility of their efforts. The water was draining into the sand too quickly; at best, they would only be able to fill their flasks two more times, but did they really need that much water? It's just a drop in the ocean!
And so they approach the hut with filled flasks, look around, and behind them in a long line are the very fish that they saved from the flood.
They walk, bouncing on their tail, with delight and determination in their eyes. The fellow prospectors were frozen in place: what would happen next?
They stand and look and what do they see: the leader of the fish procession climbs up old boards and stacks of firewood stacked near a barrel of water, and, having reached the top, bends down and pours all the water from his cantina into the barrel. And behind him the rest of the fish do the same.
Having emptied their cantina, the fish, at a signal from the leader, immediately line up again in a long chain and quickly stomp to the reservoir to replenish their tanks once again.
They repeated this journey until the barrel was filled to the brim with water. And now the prospectors had delight and gratitude in their eyes. Saying goodbye to the humpbacked cantina, the happy gold miners even shed tears of emotion.
Many years later, when McCarthy and Giacomini finally became rich, they returned to the Maiav Desert and tried to find their old friends to thank them. They looked into all the bodies of water in this vast desert, but could not find a single humpback cantina.
Their friends were no more. Either the fish drowned when there was another flood, or they died of thirst, taking too little water when they returned from the hut to the reservoir.
One way or another, their selfless act proved that the fish is also a helper in trouble, especially to those who went to look for gold in the Maiav desert and are in dire need of water.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru