Afternoon stories for children. Aruken fish and Manggabras fish. One
day Aruken fish and Manggabras fish went seaward to fish. The sun was
very hot on the day (and) so they were thirsty. Therefore, they
decided to go landward to pick up some coconut fruits so that they
could drink (their juice). When they arrived at the beach...  They
pulled their canoe (landward). Then, they walked landward and stood
under a coconut tree and looked upward. Then, they argued who should
climb the coconut tree. Finally, Manggabras agreed to climb it. He
climbed up the coconut tree and (picked) the fruits (and) dropped them
downward. The aruken fish started collecting the fruits and ate all of
them. But only two coconut fruits were left. When the Manggabras fish
got down, the Aruken fish divided the two coconut fruits, the
Manggabras fish had one and he had one for himself. Manggabras did not
see (many other coconut fruits) so he asked, he said: "I dropped many
fruits, where are they?" Then, the Aruken fish replied, "A moment ago
every time a group of people came I gave the coconuts to them, each
group of people came, I gave them the coconuts until there was nothing
left."  Manggabras did not say anything but he just kept quiet. So
they ate the two coconut fruits and then returned to sea to
fish. However, the connecting stick to the outrigger float was
released from its outrigger float.  Therefore, Manggabras asked Aruken
to go out (so that he could fix it) but when he wanted to nail the
connecting stick to the outrigger float, he slipped and fell down and
the connecting stick to the outrigger float tore his stomach. Then,
all the coconut fruits that he had just eaten came out and floated (in
the sea).  Manggabras laughed and laughed until his eyes turned around
to the back of his head. Ha ha ha. This story was written on Sunday
afternoon on the 18th of April 2010 in Mandiri, south of the Biak
island. The writer was Bernece Mofu.