FISHING WITH A TAOTAOMO'NA

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Two kompådres agreed to go fishing one night at To'guan Bay in Humåtak. Since they would go out at night, they brought torches (hachon), along with their spears (sulo'). All things being prepared, one decided to nap since it was dark but the tide was still high.

"Wake me when it's time to go out," he said to his påre.

Some time later, he was awakened by the voice of his påre, saying it was time to go. "Find me there," he said to his awakening companion.

It took the awakening man to set out and he found his partner already in the water, fishing. He tried to approach him so they could fish together, but he noticed his påre was always a certain distance away, no matter how close he tried to approach. He also realized that his påre never looked in his direction.

For a long while, he never caught a single fish. He wanted to see how his påre was going, and noticed that he kept putting things from the ocean into his basket, boasting, "Bula yo'! Bula yo'" ("I have plenty!") But when he looked closer, his påre was only catching sea slugs.

He was not convinced that the man who awakened him and who was now fishing with him, was not his påre. Fear overtook him and he didn't know what to do. He decided to move closer to the mouth of the To'guan River, but his partner moved in that direction, too, keeping the same distance as before.

At some point, the man thrust his torch into the hole of a rock to kill it and surround himself in complete darkness. Then, following the river inside, he ran into the interior of the jungle, trying to escape this mysterious partner.

In the jungle, he came upon a group of young men, playing a game called guaoho, forming a circle in a clearing in the dark jungle. They were not men, but taotaomo'na!

Seeing his frightful fishing partner running into the jungle chasing him, the fisherman ran into the circle of taotaomo'na playing their game.

The spirit fishing partner saw this, and yelled out, as he pursued him, "Guaoho, guaoho, guaoho! Hasayon i tiguang-ho! Pao limut! Pao le'o! Pao acho'! Pao ma'ti!" ("Guaoho, guaoho, guaoho! My partner has an awful smell! He smells of moss, of seaweed, of rock and of low tide!")

This spirit tried to get into the circle of his fellow taotaomo'na to catch the man, but the other taotaomo'na defended the fisherman. They subdued the one taotaomo'na and allowed the fisherman to escape and return home, just as the sun was rising.