“Why do you try to cook a stick?” asked Ini-init in surprise.
“So that we can have fish to eat,” answered his wife.
“If you cook that stick for a month, it will not be soft,” said Ini-init. “Take this fish that I caught in the net, for it will be good.”
But Aponibolinayen only laughed at him, and when they were ready to eat she took the cover off the pot and there was plenty of nice soft fish. The next night and the next, Aponibolinayen cooked the stick, and Ini-init became greatly troubled for he saw that though the stick always supplied them with fish, it never grew smaller.
Finally he asked Aponibolinayen again why it was that she cooked the stick instead of the fish he brought, and she said:
“Do you not know of the woman on earth who has magical power and can change things?”
“Yes,” answered the Sun, “and now I know that you have great power.”
“Well, then,” said his wife, “do not ask again why I cook the stick.”
And they ate their supper of rice and the fish which the stick made.
One night not long after this Aponibolinayen told her husband that she wanted to go with him the next day when he made light in the sky.