‘So he does not steal tapioca?’
‘No.’
‘Who does?’
‘The mad man.’
‘But you say he is dead.’
‘No, he is not dead.’
This point, try hard though I might, was never satisfactorily resolved, despite twenty minutes solid cross examination. So I switched tack.
‘If the dead man does not eat, does not steal tapioca, then inland man steals?’
‘No.’
‘But tapioca it steals, mad dead man not, inland man not, who?’
‘It steals.’
‘The bad man China, that Ah Soo steal?’
‘He is in the high hills. What am I to do?’
‘What does he eat?’
‘Food.’
‘If no food?’
‘No food.’
‘If no food he dies?’
‘He dies.’
‘How long they no food he dies?’
‘Long.’
‘Dead now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Dead now?’
‘No.’
I gradually brought them around to thinking the guerrillas might be living off the land, lying up, stealing tapioca and here having to use the word ‘river’ (even to the extent even when there was no actual river but where it would have been had there been one!) as an integral part of any location as otherwise the Temiar could not visualise where I was talking about:
‘Ah Soo is near?’ I asked.
‘No.’
‘Ah Soo is far?’
‘No.’
‘Where is Ah Soo?’
‘If near, near, if far, far, if this side of the river, this side, if that side, that side, if upstream, upstream, if downstream, downstream. If you are angry what am I to do? I hope strongly.’
‘What do you hope?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yes, what?’
‘Yes, no.’
‘Ah Soo is upstream?’ I asked.
‘Ah Soo is upstream.’
‘Ah Soo is downstream?’
‘Ah Soo is downstream.’
