The Legend of the Lalihote
Long ago, there lived a humble young man named Lalihote in a remote village of ancient Gorontalo. One night, Lahilote who lived near a water spring which was the upper stream of a river and made a living by collecting rattan in a nearby forest dream that was given a piece of such big rattan called “Hutiya Mala”. The young man sprang up from his sleep upon the surprising dream.
A few days later on his way to the forest, Laholote chanced to glance down the river and see a group of seven beautiful fairies who were bathing joyfully. The seven beauties left their “selendangs”, the magic scarves they used as the wings, on the river-bank. Greed soon lured Lahilote to steal and hide one of the selendangs. As they were aware of the presence of Laholote, the fairies soon stopped bathing and go out of water and fetched their selendangs. They all flew to the heaven leaving the poor one who cried and sobbed desperately because she could not find her selendangs. Lahitole approached and comforted her, then brought her some proposed her to be his wife. The beautiful accepted his proposal and soon they married.
One day, lahitole told his wife that he had go to the forest to collect rattan. His wife insisted to accompany him but he did not let her go with him. To keep herself if busy Lahitole’s wife wondered over the house amd by chance she found her lost selendang kept very carefully in a bamboo tube. She felt very happy but at the same time very disappointed to know her husband’s unfairness. She soon wear the selendang and flew away to the heaven leave her husband behind.
Lahilote got home happily because at that time he succeeded in collecting a great deal of rattan. But soon he got very much disappointed to know that his wife had flown away and the bamboo tube where he had kept the selendang was empty. At that very difficult moment, suddenly came a wise Polahi (a certain tribe living in the forest) man who gave him a piece of magic rattan. He told Lahitole that the rattan could bring him to the heaven. Eventually, Lahilote succeeded to fly to the heaven and meet his beloved wife. Lahitole was allowed to stay in the heaven.
After some time, when his wife was looking for lice Lahilote’s head, she happened to see some garying hairs among his. Soon she sprang up and got away from her startled husband. She told him that no one with graying hair is allowed to stay in heaven. Upon his questions, she told her husband: “Love fades away when you get a graying because here in heaven you are no more than a shadow as soon as you get a piece of graying hair.”
Broken-heartedly, Lahilote got down from the heaven making use of a piece of board. He swore: “From this point of Pohe beach up to the border of the shroud to cover my dead body, my left foot-print will be printed forever.”
At the moment we can find a stone in the beach of Pohe, in the Province of Gorontalo with a foot-print stamped on it. The locals believe that is the foot-print of Lahilote.
What did fairy think about gray haired human?
