The Sleeping Dictionary Page #2

but you forbid by your spirit?

Yes, you could say that.

I will go to my tree now.

Wait, wait,

wait, wait.

Perhaps we could

have another try.

If you're willing

to re-employ me, that is.

I will give you

one more chance.

Hey!

I want a word

with you.

Last night you got

completely drunk again.

My other masters,

they fine me

one week pay

if I blind drunk,

two week pay if I blind,

legless drunk.

I blind drunk two time

a month regular,

so very cheap cook.

Fair enough.

Wait.

Do you play croquet?

No.

Help me reload,

would you?

I'm clearing the jungle

for a croquet lawn

for when Cecil,

my daughter, comes out.

It's much quicker than

a working party from the jail.

Aggie Bullard,

Henry's wife.

You must be Truscott.

How are you getting on

with Henry's damn fool tests?

I think next

I have to wrestle a crocodile.

Sleeping dictionary

shaping up all right?

Truscott!

Us women don't know anything

about all of that.

- Truscott!

- And for heaven's sake,

bed her or the Iban'll think

there's something wrong

with you down below.

Excuse me.

Re-group!

Sorry?

You're not picking up

the language very fast, are you?

And where are those

Chinese heads?!

You are in the bathroom.

I am in...?

the bedroom.

What do I do?

I...

I say good night

to my father.

Where do you go?

Bedroom.

Bedroom...

bedroom.

W-what next?

I-I go to sleep.

Do English people

have dreams at night?

Sometimes, yeah.

Are we really

that strange?

Have you ever

sleep with a woman?

I won't

till I get married.

That's our way.

But when you marry

you'll be very bad at sex

and your wife

will be unhappy.

I'll take evening classes,

I promise.

I've never met anyone...

even a little like you.

Whyever did you

choose me?

Your dance is not

the dance of an Englishman.

Good night.

Yes.

I thought you didn't like

our education.

You want to educate us

like your father did?

You were educated because

you're the chief's son.

Shouldn't others have

the same opportunity?

William, William,

Henry, Henry,

Richard, John, Henry,

Edward, Edward,

Richard, Henry,

Henry, Edward,

Edward, Richard,

Henry, Henry, Edward--

Mary, Elizabeth,

James, Charles,

Charles, James, William,

George, George, George, George,

William, Victoria,

Edward, George, Edward, George.

The kings of England.

And why do I need

to know that?

The mission school

tries to turn us

into little Englishmen.

They didn't do a very good job

with you, did they?

You missed Queen Anne,

by the way.

You missed King Stephen.

I hear when you were young,

you were a champion at

the underwater battles.

When I was young?

I am still champion

of 1 0 Longhouses.

Yes, they say you can

beat any girl on the river.

Will you

challenge me then?

How you--

how you do that?

Some Englishmen

can breathe underwater

through their ears.

I wonder if I might

have a word about...

those heads.

It's lovely

workmanship.

I'll add those

to the collection.

The ants eaten

your dinner jacket yet?

I think there's

an arm or two left.

Good.

My daughter Cecilia

is arriving for Christmas.

First class honors degree

at Oxford.

You'd like her.

Come to dinner.

Oh!

How drunk is he?

Blind, legless, daft,

sick, smelly drunk.

My mother

read that to me.

My father

read it to me.

Do you remember

your father?

He go back to England

when I am four.

My dad died

when I was four.

"Deep, deep

beneath the sea

where the water is

clear as purest glass

Iies the palace

of the Sea King.

There behind its...

walls of coral

and roof of cockleshells

lives a little mermaid."

You can read English.

I remember it

by my heart.

I made him read it

many time.

Write a word from it.

"Deep."

Now you.

"Hand."

"Arm."

Neck.

Lips.

Breast.

I-I'm sorry.

That was too quick,

wasn't it?

You teach me English,

I'll teach you this.

School is not finished.

Not quite the education

my father had in mind.

Why do you always go?

For sleeping dictionary,

it is proper.

For the Iban,

if a man and a woman wake up

together five nights in a row,

they are engaged.

You don't want that,

do you?

Cecilia's got a degree

in anthropology, you know?

She did her thesis

on the Iban.

- Really?

- Mmm.

Why did you choose

the Iban to study?

I lived here until I was five.

Till Mother and Father

couldn't stand me any longer

and shipped me off to school.

But I always

remembered them.

The way you'd never see them arrive,

but then suddenly there they'd be,

standing beside you

as if they'd

been there since...

time began.

Although, for them, of course,

time only began 53 years ago.

- Really?

- Yes, the year Krakatoa exploded.

- That's their year zero.

- Is that true?

How the deuce

do you know that?

- Well, I listen.

- Do you now?

Well, I can't wait to get

stuck in and meet the Iban.

Shipperly's taken over

from Teague--

chap I told you about.

Went doolally

and ate his own toes.

I'll tell you something

I bet you don't know.

Back in Victorian times,

the young officers coming out here

were given a young woman

from the local head-hunting tribes

to share their bed...

so they could learn

the language quickly.

I hardly think so, darling.

Now you are having us on,

aren't you?

No, that's true.

I've heard tell of it

from a very old Iban.

- See?

- Well...

if it did exist,

I'm sure it was purely

a matter of convenience

and no...

higher feelings

were involved.

- Don't see why.

- Surely you can't seriously believe

that a primitive

head-huntress

and an English officer

could experience love.

Not love, maybe,

but I'm sure they could

feel a great deal.

Whatever an Englishman felt,

he would never

let that get in the way

of his duty

to the local people.

My Iban wouldn't

think less of an officer--

"My Iban"?

They're not your Iban.

They might be God's,

but they're certainly not yours.

We've got enough bloody dictators

in Europe, thank you.

- All I'm saying--

- And all I'm saying,

is that an English officer

would never let

his country down.

Nor his family.

Would he, Truscott?

No, sir.

So is she pretty?

Well, she's fairly pretty.

But does she have wings?

What happened to

the spirits of your country?

They grew old and tired and packed

their bags and left for England.

This is a land dispute

between two Longhouses.

It's fiendishly

complicated.

You must be sick of me

following you around.

No, I know how

interested you are.

At least this time we escaped

the dreaded Shipperly.

He's harmless, but...

he's like all men

who've been to an all-male

school and college.

The only women they're comfortable

with are their mothers.

He talks to me like

I'm a Labrador.

I went to an all-male school

and an all-male college.

Then something

must've changed you.

Well...

yes.

Being out here, I imagine.

So have you

sorted out this dispute?

Yes, I think so,

yes.

See, it's impossible

to sort out the argument.

So if I decide

for one side or the other,

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