A Legend of the native Cascadura in Trinidad 
“Those who eat the Cascadura will, the native legend says, wheresoever they may wander end in Trinidad their days,” Johnson and the Cascadura (Selvon, 1957).
So goes the folklore in Trinidad and Tobago about this rare, prized member of the catfish family, known as cascadura or cascadoo in Trinidad and Tobago.
Johnson and the Cascadura (a synopsis)By Sam Selvon
Johnson and the Cascadura is a fictional short story about a white Englishman, Garry Johnson, who went to Trinidad “to get background material for a book he was writing, on superstition and witchcraft.” While there, Johnson met an Indian girl, Urmilla, who worked on the estate where Johnson was staying. The two fell in love. They were from different worlds, he a white, affluent man, and she an uneducated country girl. Rumours of their love circulated and there was disquiet and disapproval.
Johnson decided to return to England. The night before he was due to return, Urmilla brought him some curry cascadura she had made, believing in the folklore that, “Those who eat the cascadura will, the native legend says, wheresoever they may wander end in Trinidad their days.”
Johnson returned to England and wrote his book. Three years later, he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease. Doctors did not give him much time to live and so he wanted to go back to Trinidad.
Upon his return, Johnson and Urmilla began planning their wedding. Sam, the overseer who had unrequited love for Urmilla said to Johnson, “So the cascadura legend really worked, and brought you back to Trinidad.”
“I can’t get Urmilla to believe otherwise,” Johnson laughed.
Urmilla was positive that the cascadura had worked the charm.
The Poem
Those who eat the cascadura will, the native legend says,
Wheresoever they may wander, end in Trinidad their days.
And this lovely fragrant island, with its forest hills sublime,
Well might be the smiling Eden pictured in the Book divine.
Cocoa woods with scarlet glory of the stately Immortelles,
Waterfalls and fertile valleys, precipices, fairy dells,
Rills and rivers, green savannahs, fruits and flowers and odours rich,
Waving sugar cane plantations and the wondrous lake of pitch.
Oh! the Bocas at the daybreak – how can one describe that scene!
Or the little emerald islands with the sapphire sea between!
Matchless country of Iere, fairer none could ever wish.
Can you wonder at the legend of the cascadura fish?
Allister Macmillan
