communist guerillas when he d fought with the british during the malayan insurgency. we drank many shots of rice whiskey together under a bouquet of human skulls, trophies from another time. and i promised i d come back, for gawai, a big deal in the iban calendar, when friends and relatives return to the longhouse. a lot has changed since the iban tracked commies through the jungle, and much has changed in the ten years since i ve been here. itam passed away the year before last, at the age of 92. and the evidence of how timbering has depleted much of the forest is everywhere. scandalously so.