SC.2023.28. Ancient Tsou

I would dream,
Of a Naozi,
So long one cannot see the end

I would live there, all my life, between the boughs,
Of the orange trees, their blossoms
All over me.

Rest, I would know,
And duty ignore,
The tudum snores.

— The lingering of the Tsou, poem by Reiki Tsu'Reik on the date of the accession to the throne.

"What a lovely village."

"This is a tudum, it is a traditional construction only found here in Tsou, and only in the traditional areas where the Tsou people began."

"These earthberms are certainly intresting, they're all over the village?

"A tudum starts with the earthberms, and leads through a main street with the earth berms lining every habitation, it is traditional to design the whole village with just the few earthberms that criss-cross it."

"And this is?"

"That's a communal orange garden, they are everywhere there are tudum."

"Do the garden or earthberms have names?"

"Yes." She beamed with pride. "The earthberm are Naozi, and the gardens are Tsao."

"Dentrag, ɥǎr cha ô dhe Tsao."

Mako tried not to burst out laughing, but failed. "I'm sorry, but those names were in ancient Tsou, Dentrag, ɥǎr cha ô dhe hǒ would be the modern way to say that. The two languages are similar, but not identical, and I dare say, no one has used the ancient names in the context of the new language in my hearing before."

"So you remember the names, but you only put them on the tourist maps?"

"Sadly, yes. Many old words come to us from Dawn Moniqan, and we have as many reasons as you not to like them, perhaps even more."

"Oh, yes, I see."

"Either that, or you use those old words for classified purposes, and I'm getting in trouble for using them, right?"

"Do not ever joke about that!" She looked left, then right. "They are always watching."

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