Legend of Dak Pe waterfall

To mourn the beautiful and sad love story of Mr. Dran and Ms. Pe, the villagers of Dak Krong, Dak Psi commune, Dak Ha district changed the name of Dak Tia waterfall to today’s Dak Pe waterfall.

That day, a long time ago, late at night, around the communal house fire, the boys and girls of Dak Krong village listened attentively to the village elders telling stories…

Dak Tia stream is gentle because there is not much water. About the first half of the dry season, about a moon after the village holds a festival to celebrate new rice, there is almost no water left.

Dak Tia stream water is as clear as the eyes of a teenage boy in the village. When flowing to Dak Krong village, the terrain suddenly changes height due to large rapids, the water falls from above into Dak Tia waterfall and carries the stream to Dak Krong village, watering the trees. village gardens.

In the morning, villagers often stop by the stream to get water into dry gourds and carry it to the fields. At noon, birds, wild animals… come here to drink water. In the afternoon, the girls in the village come here to wash their hair. In the evening, on moonlit nights, the stream is where boys and girls come to date…

He said, that day, all the girls in the village had long and silky black hair, including his mother and his wife. The happiness, sadness, thoughts, and memories of Dak Krong villagers are all tied to this stream and cannot be abandoned…

Many old people in the village also said that when they miss their loved ones who are far away, or when they remember the person they love, they just stand at the foot of the waterfall and call out loud, and immediately there will be an echo as if they were answering. That’s why the name of the waterfall is Dak Tia, which in Xo Dang language means “Responding” waterfall.

Dak Pe Waterfall, Dak Psi commune, Dak Ha district. Photo: Duc Thanh

Pe is the name of a beautiful girl – the only daughter of Giang Nuoc. On moonlit nights in the dry season, when all the mountains and forests are asleep, Pe often comes down to wash and dry her long hair next to this stream.

That day, also on a moonlit night, Ms. Pe went down to Dak Tia stream to wash and dry her hair. It seemed that a little bit of alcohol from the fun party in the afternoon made her while sitting to dry her hair, she fell asleep on a big rock next to the stream.

Dran is the tallest and most beautiful boy in the village. He has eyes as bright as stars and hair that bounces like the clouds in the sky; His voice is loud and clear, his feet tirelessly walk through the forests; He also knows how to play the flute to call the wild birds home…

Early that morning, when the wild deer had not yet woken up, he went into the forest to get a bamboo pipe to make a water-drinking instrument in preparation for this year’s rice farming season. As usual, Dran went to the stream bank at the foot of Dak Tia to get water into the dry gourd worn on his belt. Is there any strange omen, but this morning the forest birds woke up earlier than usual, they sang in every forest while the morning dew still lingered on the leaves as if to welcome him. The sounds of birds mixed with the sounds of children in the forest, earnestly calling for their mates on the distant hillside… The new boy’s emotions seemed to be fuller in his chest, more bustling with his bare feet.

When Dran arrived at Dak Tia waterfall, the sun had just risen. The first rays of sunlight make the water sparkle more magically. Dran took off the dry gourd he wore on his body and waded into the stream to get water. When he uncorked the dry gourd, suddenly the forest birds sang in unison, ringing loudly, disturbing the whole corner of the forest. Feeling strange, he looked up at the head of the waterfall. Miss Pe appeared in a brilliant outfit like a po-lang flower blooming between heaven and earth; Her hair flows long like a waterfall; eyes sparkling through a shy, shy smile. She is as beautiful as a wild flower. The mountains and forests suddenly became quiet. The birds stopped singing, the sound of the waterfall stopped ringing, the forest eagle stopped moving… Everyone seemed to be silently witnessing the moment Dran and Pe met… Their eyes merged together like two streams of water, like The sound of gongs and gongs blends rhythmically in the festival circle.

From then on, throughout those moon seasons, they gave each other the purest and purest love of their lives. The shadow of the mountain canopy, the clear stream water, and the canopy of trees here quietly witnessed those angelic date nights.

Their love story eventually reached Giang Nuoc’s ears, probably because some wild bird told them. Her father did not agree and was angry, strictly forbidding Ms. Pe to wash her hair by the Dak Tia waterfall. Night after night, alone, Dran silently came to the foot of the waterfall, calling her name. He only heard the sounds of the forest, water, and rocks echoing back as if to answer him, but his loved one was nowhere to be found!

Xo Dang people make water instruments at Dak Pe waterfall. Photo: Duc Thanh

Ms. Pe was also very sad. Her body and soul were as thirsty as a forest tree in the season of shedding its leaves. Looking at his beloved daughter becoming more and more emaciated, Giang Nuoc felt sorry for her so he softly texted Dran: “I only have one daughter, I just want her to be with me so I can look after and take care of her. If you want to marry my daughter, then go find seven baskets of bitter roots in the deep forest to make offerings and gifts for my daughter, then I will be satisfied…”.

That night, the village’s communal house was aflame until late. Dran asked the village elders and elders about the bitter root tree that Giang Nuoc had talked about. Until the fire was tired, the village elder took a long drag from his pipe, releasing mouthfuls of thick smoke that rose up to the roof of the communal house, and bluntly said: “Tomorrow, when the most diligent chicken in the village has not crowed yet.” , please go towards the highest Ngoc Linh mountain to find what you need.” The old man said and pointed towards the vast forests facing the sun to sleep, where Tu Mo Rong village was located at the foot of the majestic Ngoc Linh mountain.

The next day, without waiting for the rooster to crow, Dran put the knife around his waist and set out. He kept walking, it was dark, then light, then dark again, without stopping at all.

Back to the story of Pe. The long-burning longing for her lover motivated her at night. While her father, Giang Nuoc, was in a deep sleep, Pe sneaked down to the old place to find her lover. She waited for him all night long by the stream, in the biting cold of the Central Highlands dry season. And she died on a rock beside a deserted stream.

Having sobered up, Giang Nuoc couldn’t see his daughter, so he quickly went to look for her. When he arrived at Dak Tia waterfall and saw that his son had died, Giang Nuoc felt extremely sad and regretful. Her pure body melted under the mysterious moonlight of the mountains and forests last night and transformed into white stone; Her long hair also flows down the cool, shiny, smooth water…

Loving his child so much, Giang Nuoc opened many more clear streams nearby to flow into the stream flowing into Dak Tia waterfall. More water poured in, making Ms. Pe’s “hair” longer and smoother, reaching all the way to the top of Dak Krong village.

As for Dran, he spent two days and nights wading through the forest, determined not to give up. Until I found seven baskets of bitter tubers halfway up Ngoc Linh mountain, a species of herb growing wild throughout the mountains and forests here that people today call precious ginseng.

Dran returned to the foot of Dak Tia waterfall. Feeling hungry and thirsty, Dran dove into the stream to take a drink to satisfy his fatigue. Strangely enough, Dran occasionally realized that the water seemed to have the scent of Pe’s hair! The scent of that hair made him dazed and nostalgic. When he raised his head, Dran immediately saw Giang Nuoc’s sad, regretful eyes staring at him!…

After listening to Giang Nuoc tell everything, Dran was extremely miserable. He knelt right at the foot of the waterfall and asked Giang Nuoc to let him transform into an old tree standing next to the waterfall to always be close to his lover. Giang Nuoc agrees. And since then, the villagers of Dak Krong have always heard the sharing of feelings between Mr. Dran and Ms. Pe through the sound of a thousand-year-old waterfall.

To mourn that beautiful and sad love story, the villagers of Dak Krong, Dak Psi commune, Dak Ha district changed the name of Dak Tia waterfall to Dak Pe waterfall today.