the half-intelligent fish thought, "my guide is gone. i should have gone with him, but i didn't, and now i've lost my chance to escape. i wish that i had gone with him." so the half-intelligent fish mourned the absence of his guide for a while, and then thought to himself, "what can i do to save myself from these men and their nets? perhaps if i pretend to be dead! i'll belly up on the surface and float like a weed floats, just giving myself totally to the water. to die before i die." so he did that and so he bobbed up and down, helpless, within the arm's reach of the fisherman. "look at this! the biggest fish of all is dead." one of the men lifted him up by the tail, spat on him, and threw him up on the ground he rolled over and over and slid secretly near the water, and then, back in.