According to the Folk-tales of the Kiwai Papuans from the Kiwai island in the Fly River delta, in the southeast of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea), óboúbi are mythical creatures living underwater (388: p.316):

At Kímúsu reef there live some of the water beings which are called óboúbi. They kill and eat dugong, the bones of which they leave on the reef. At low water lots of these bones may be seen there, some old ones belonging to dugong killed long ago, and some quite fresh. They are placed in circles, in the same way as people arrange skulls which they have captured from enemies.

There are both males and females among the óboúbi. They look like ordinary people, hut their females have no grass skirt on. Their language is the same as that of men. The óboúbi are the masters of crocodiles and other water animals. If a crocodile has been killed and cut up somewhere, the óboúbi will appear there the next night, guided by the traces of blood, and will wail, «Oh, man been kill him, he cut him here, cook him. Oh, what name (why) he been kill him, me been make him grow?» This wailing can be heard in the night. If a canoe gets lost at sea the people on board will be caught by the óboúbi, with whom they remain ever after; sometimes the óboúbi eat them.

The Folk-tale of the Kiwai Papuans. Collected by Gunnar Landtman in Máwata from Námai (876: p.214)