| Yesterday I was lying on a chair in the sunbathing area of the hotel
Méditerranée beside the pool and enjoyed the sun and the blue sky.
Steep rocks with cactusses were growing towards the chapel of Maria de
Rocca. A wall of natural stones protected the swimming pool
against the close hillside. On this wall something moved: A small lizard
was winding along from stone to stone, stopping in between until it
disappeared in the wall.
Today I have choosen a chair close to the mountain because the air is smoother here and the wall irradiates additional warmth in the late afternoon. "Look here! What´s that?", said Mrs Gehlen, who had swum to the border of the pool and held onto the rim. Like a petrifaction the lizard -about 5 centimeters long- was sitting on the margin right above the moving waters. It is totally wet and the water has darkened its colour. Maybe it has fallen into the pool and could just rescue itself. Maybe its eyes are burning because of the Chloride in the water. Or it is stiff from the cold water and waits for its cold blood to warm up from the sun. Mrs Gehlen slightly touches the head of the lizard. Thus the little animal revives. But it falls into the water again and gratefully accepts the stretched-out finger to be rescued. From there I take it in my hand. But the lizard obviously does not want to be captured in my hands. It crawls out there fastly and goes on to my left forearm. Here it petrifies again and grips my hairs with its little claws. Like a tatoo it holds still in an s-shape. Only its breast is widening and relaxing in a regular rhythm but the others do not see that. For them it must look like a tatoo. Damp and cold I feel the little animal. The fine claws are picking my skin. I return to my chair and passing by I show my "tatoo" to the other guests. Then I grasp my book. What´s the lizard doing? It sticks to my forearm and does not dare to move except some little movement of the head to the left and to the right. It was sitting like that for about ten minutes and could not be disturbed. When I wanted to go to the pool myself I softly pushed it to the stand of my parasol. There it swifts away rapidly and disappears in a crack of the wall. Wolfgang Ellenberger, translation |