THE LEGEND OF TOBA LAKE

The Legend of Toba Lake

Once upon a time, there was a fisherman lived in a North Sumatra. When he was fishing in a river, a big fish was nailed. This fish had gold color all over its body. It was beautiful. The fisherman was very excited. He imagined a delicious dinner in his head. He put the fish in his basket and went home happily.

When he got home, he put the fish in a sink. He grabbed a knife to kill the fish. But when he almost killed it, he saw the fish eyes and felt pity. He took the knife away and put the fish in washbasin and added water in it. The fisherman went fishing again. But this time he couldn’t get any fish. He went home with nothing in his hand. He was surprised when he saw smoke came out from his kitchen.

The fisherman entered the room. “Who are you?” he asked the girl.

“I’m the fish.” The girl said.

And so, the fisherman and the fish girl were married. And then they had a child called Samo. Samo was very naughty. One day Samo was asked to deliver lunch to his father. On his way, he met his friends and forgot to deliver his father’s lunch. Samo played with his friends. When he was tired and hungry, he was resting under a tree and ate his father lunch. Meanwhile his father waited him in starve and tired. His father went home and saw Samo played.

His father was yelled and evicted Samo from his house.

His father said the words that he wouldn’t suppose to say. “You… fish’s son.”

Suddenly, the sky was getting dark. The storm was breaking the ears. The rain felt from the sky like giant hose sprayed water all over the place. And then the water came out from the land and getting harder.

Sumo’s mother was very sad. “I told you don’t tell him about me” she said to her husband. “Now I’m going back to be fish again. Good by” the mother was transformed magically to be gold fish again and disappear through the water. The water was getting higher and drown the village and formed a lake.

Meanwhile, sumo run to the hill and stayed there. The hill then was surrounded by the lake.

Now the lake was known as Toba Lake. Toba came from Tuba word means no mercy. And the hill in the middle called SamosirIsland. Samosir means ‘Samo di usir’ or in English : Samo have been evicted.