who has been mentioned many times in this story, and who, for his
slaughter and for his insatiable voracity, had been named the "Attila of
Fish and Fishermen."

Only to think of poor Pinocchio's terror at the sight of the monster. He
tried to avoid it, to change his direction; he tried to escape, but that
immense, wide-open mouth came towards him with the velocity of an arrow.

"Be quick, Pinocchio, for pity's sake!" cried the beautiful little goat,
bleating.

And Pinocchio swam desperately with his arms, his chest, his legs, and
his feet.

"Quick, Pinocchio, the monster is close upon you!"

And Pinocchio swam quicker than ever, and flew on with the rapidity of a
ball from a gun. He had nearly reached the rock, and the little goat,
leaning over towards the sea, had stretched out her fore-legs to help
him out of the water!

But it was too late! The monster had overtaken him and, drawing in his
breath, he sucked in the poor puppet as he would have sucked a hen's
egg; and he swallowed him with such violence and avidity that Pinocchio,
in falling into the Dog-Fish's stomach, received such a blow that he
remained unconscious for a quarter of an hour afterwards.

When he came to himself again after the shock he could not in the least
imagine in what world he was. All around him it was quite dark, and the
darkness was so black and so profound that it seemed to him that he had
fallen head downwards into an inkstand full of ink. He listened, but he
could hear no noise; only from time to time great gusts of wind blew in
his face. At first he could not understand where the wind came from, but
at last he discovered that it came out of the monster's lungs. For you
must know that the Dog-Fish suffered very much from asthma, and when he
breathed it was exactly as if a north wind was blowing.

Pinocchio at first tried to keep up his courage, but when he had one
proof after another that he was really shut up in the body of this
sea-monster he began to cry and scream, and to sob out:

"Help! help! Oh, how unfortunate I am! Will nobody come to save me?"

"Who do you think could save you, unhappy wretch?" said a voice in the
dark that sounded like a guitar out of tune.

"Who is speaking?" asked Pinocchio, frozen with terror.

"It is I! I am a poor Tunny who was swallowed by the Dog-Fish at the
same time that you were. And what fish are you?"

"I have nothing in common with fish. I am a puppet."

"Then, if you are not a fis