“All li’. You come,” he said.
Although he talked pidgin English, he couldn’t understand it when we talked it, but he could understand straight English, except when he didn’t want to answer, then he would say “No sabbe,” and that settled it, you couldn’t get a word from him. They were all like that.
I started out with them through the jungle forest. The silence of the place, their footsteps being almost noiseless, was depressing. I tried to talk.
“How far?” I asked.
“Me no sabbe,” said the youth.
“How long will it take to get there?” I insisted.
“Little,” answered his father. They have no idea of time as divided into hours and minutes, they judge by nights, before “high sun” or noon, and back to “no sun” or evening.