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Overview
A boy secretly watches a successful fisher remove his head and place it on the shore. The headless man stands waist-deep in the sea and bends so that fish enter his open throat. Back on shore he shakes them out and replaces his head. The boy refuses the catch and tells the villagers what he saw.
During the next fishing trip a watcher throws the detached head into the bush. Unable to recover it, the fisher rushes into the sea and becomes a huge fish. A palm later grows where the head landed; its fruit is identified as the first coconut, whose exposed surface recalls the man’s face. The fisher is unnamed and the transformed fish has no species identification. This is a distinct Papuan coconut narrative, not silently equated with named Polynesian eel accounts.
Origins & earliest records
Annie Ker, Papuan Fairy Tales (London: Macmillan, 1910), Where the Coconut came from, pp. 92–96. Individual narrator unnamed.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected tale directly read in digitized transcription.
Selected bibliography
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- 01
Papuan Fairy Tales: Where the Coconut came from, pp. 92–96
Full selected narrative inspected.
Family & connections
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References
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- Primary collected textKer1910: Where the Coconut came from, pp. 92–96Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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