Toba Lake (Danau Toba)

Once upon a time, in North Sumatra, lived a single man who liked to go fishing. His name was
Toba.

One day when he went fishing, he caught a big golden fish. He pulled the fishing rod quickly.
Surprisingly, the golden fish turned into a beautiful woman. He took her home and let her sleep
there. Days had passed, Toba fell in love with the woman because of her beauty, and wanted to
marry her.

“I will marry you. But, you must promise me that you will not tell anyone that I was a fish, or
something bad will happen,” said the woman to Toba.

Toba promised not to tell anybody about it. After that, they both got married and had a son. His
name is Samosir.

One day, Toba went to the field to work. Somosir helped him to bring his lunch. However,
Samosir was hungry at that time. So, he ate Toba’s lunch. Unfortunately, Toba found out what
his son did. He got so angry and the cursed words came out from his mouth.

“Why did you eat my lunch? You son of a fish!” shouted Toba.

Samosir cried and went home. He asked his mother if what the father said was true or not. The
mother did not answer the question, instead she told Samosir to run to the hill because a
disaster was about to come. The mother was disappointed in her husband. He could not keep
his words. Not so long after that, a big flood smashed that area.

The mother turned into a golden fish again. That flood area formed a lake that was known as
Toba Lake, and the son turned into an Island that was called Samosir island.

Moral of the story: A promise is something you need to keep. Once you break it, it breaks
everything.