The Lieutenant: Part 3, Chapter 2  Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Rooke emerges from his hut and sees two natives standing at the top of the hill. Rooke regrets how he greeted the natives before with friendly speech. He looks at them for a long moment and then sits down against his hut to wait. Rooke busies himself thinking about clouds for a while and realizes that the men have come closer. He surreptitiously looks in their direction and catches Warungin's eye. Warungin comes and sits down near Rooke. He puts a hand out and begins to say something. Rooke tries to mimic the sounds until he finally comes out with "bere-wal," and Warungin nods.

Warungin mimes using a telescope, gestures into the distance, and says "berewal" again. Rooke mimics Warungin and finally understands that "berewal" means something along the lines of "a great distance away." Warungin points out to sea and says "Cammera-gal," and then to himself and says "Cadigal." Rooke realizes that Warungin must be of the Cadigal tribe. Warungin touches Rooke's chest and says, "Berewal-gal," and Rooke understands that he himself is of the Berewalgal tribe, or the "great-distance-off tribe." Though Rooke is thrilled to have a name, he's also shocked to realize that even with all the skills and belongings that the white men have, to the Cadigal, they're just another tribe.

Rooke wants to learn more, but Warungin gets up. Though Rooke doesn’t detect any signal, a group of natives, including women and children, file down the hill and stop in front of the hut. Rooke listens as Warungin gives some sort of speech, and then the men sit down with Warungin. An old woman walks towards Rooke's hut and he gestures for her to come inside. She looks around and doesn't seem to find it interesting, but calls to the other women. They all crowd inside and inspect Rooke's belongings. When a woman picks up one of Rooke's books, he wonders if they understand the idea of a square, and if they have a Euclid of their own who has discovered geometry.

The children hide behind the women's legs, but Rooke catches the eye of a young boy and manages to wink at him. The boy darts towards Rooke and touches one of the buttons on his jacket. When the boy realizes the button won't hurt him, he begins touching and pulling at other parts of Rooke's jacket and shouting. The women begin speaking to Rooke with the few English words they've learned, mostly greetings. Rooke replies to them. It's all merry until one woman picks up Rooke's shaving razor. He jumps up, grabs it from her, and tries to demonstrate that the razor is very sharp, but the joyful spell is broken.

It begins to rain. Rooke looks outside, sticks his hand out to catch a few drops, and then turns to the women and asks what they call the wet. One of the young girls comes forward and touches Rooke's palm. As they look at each other, Rooke thinks he recognizes the same kind of excitement to learn new things in her as he has within himself. She strokes his palm and speaks, and then purses her lips at Rooke. Rooke repeats what she says—"marray”—and the girl smiles. She says the word again and motions to the rain.

Rooke comments in English about the downpour, and wonders why he can make small talk now but never when he actually needs to. The girl looks seriously at Rooke and speaks slowly and clearly. Rooke struggles to mimic the sounds, and finally manages to speak the phrase. The women smile and nod when he finally gets it, and Rooke wonders what exactly the phrase means.

The rain stops, and the young boy and two women saunter out of the hut. The girl speaks another word that Rooke struggles to repeat. He doesn't know what it means, but he thinks that the clear message is that both he and the girl want to speak to each other. The old woman brings Rooke's fire back to life, and Rooke puts his hand on his chest and says his name. The girl understands immediately, places a hand on her own chest, and speaks, though Rooke must work to finally make sense of it. Finally, he gets it: the girl's name is Tagaran. She smiles when he says it.

Rooke pulls down a notebook and writes down Tagaran's name as well as the two other phrases. He reads the phrases back to her, and she smiles with delight. The old woman calls for the children to go, and Rooke says goodbye to them. The hut suddenly feels empty. Rooke sits back down with his notebooks and thinks that language isn't just lists of words. It's a machine, and in order to understand it, one must dismantle the machine. Rooke knows he's capable of this, and feels as though this is his destiny. He pictures the day when he presents the governor with his notebooks, and thinks that what he'll learn is as important as Galileo's discoveries. Learning the language will allow him to truly understand the Cadigal society.

Rooke draws up columns in his notebooks to organize the words he learns alphabetically. Then, he pulls out a second notebook and organizes a system for collecting Cadigal grammar. When he's finished, he admires his notebooks and thinks that he's setting off into the unknown. He again feels as though this is his destiny.