Fishing Tree

In Tonga, long ago, on the Island of Nomuka there was a very special ‘ifi tree. It had two branches that jutted into the sky like arms of praise. In between these two branches there was a small hollow. One day a man and his wife noticed that every day birds would fly around the top of the tree. Eventually their curiosity got the better of them and they climbed the tree to see what the birds could see. In the hollow, between the branches, there was a small pool of water; in the water were two fish. Immediately the man and his wife realized these to be very special fish. They sent a letter explaining to the king, George Tupou I, the story of how they found these fish. The king concurred that these were indeed very special. He asked the man to keep the fish in the tree; because he believed it was there they would be safe. So the man and his wife kept the fish in the tree. The two became four, and the four six, and so on, until there was a little pool of fish high up in an ‘ifi tree. Whenever the king visited Nomuka he would eat some fish from the tree; but if anyone else ever ate those fish they became very sick. For many years the fish thrived. Then one day the man went to the tree and found that the fish were all gone. Ever since then there have been no fish in any sort of tree, only in the sea.