Folklore from North Sumatra
ONCE upon a time in Simalungun, North Sumatra, there was a king with her beautiful daughter.
ONCE upon a time in Simalungun, North Sumatra, there was a king with her beautiful daughter.
The princess was famous. Many young men admired her beauty.
One of the young men who fell in love with her was a prince from the neighboring kingdom. The prince came to Simalungun and talked to the king. He wanted to propose the princess.
Later, the king talked to his daughter about the wedding proposal. The princess was a very kind daughter. She did not want to disappoint her parents.S
he knew her parents wanted her to accept the prince s wedding proposal.
The king and the queen were happy.They were glad that finally their daughter planned to get married.
Then, a wedding ceremony was prepared. Everybody in the kingdom was busy. They all wanted to contribute to the wedding.
The princess was also busy preparing herself. One thing that she had to do was she had to take care of her body carefully. She wanted to look very beautiful during the wedding ceremony.
As always, the princess and her ladies-in-waiting were taking a bath in the pond inside the palace garden.The princess was so happy and she was playing around inside the pond. She was not careful and she accidentally slipped.Her nose hit a big stone and got bleeding. The ladies in-waiting immediately helped her. When they could stop the bleeding, they were surprised. The princess nose was no longer beautiful.When the princess knew what happened, she was very sad. She was afraid that the prince would cancel the wedding.And if that really happened, the king would be very angry. The prince was very sorry, she was not careful in the pond.
However, it was too late. There was no use for her to regret what had happened.
The princess then prayed to God.I am not a good child, God. I cannot make my parents proud of me.
Please punish me. I cannot live anymore. I don t want to see my parents being sad just because of me, prayed the princess.Amazingly, right after the princess finished praying, the princess slowly changed into a snake. It started from her legs and slowly to the upper body also changed.
The ladies-in-waiting were shocked.
They went to the palace and reported to the king. When the king and the queen arrived at the pond, the princess had completely changed into a snake. The king and the queen were sad. They saw their only daughter had changed into a snake. The snake also looked very sad but she could not speak anymore.Slowly, the snake went to the bushes and disappeared. The snake could not live in the palace anymore and could not change back as a human anymore. After all, that was her prayer to God. ***
