I was determined to know the worst. I drew from my drawers (I had worn no trousers) an imaginary corkscrew, and from my undershirt an unsubstantial bottle. I pulled a supposititious cork, and took a long drink of the unreal elixir. Momuni was transfixed. His jaws worked, and his tongue extended. He squeezed my hand with happiness and hope, and left in it the five scarlet tokens of the Banque de l’Indo-Chine.
“Wina damafina; rumma damafina,” he confided. The man would be content with anything, so it bit his throat and made him a king for an evil hour.
Tomé was dealing out tobacco when we reached his store. His wife and baby, an Irish-Penrhyn baby, were now eating a can of salmon and Nabisco wafers.
“Who is this gentleman, Mr. Eustace?” I asked, pointing to Momuni.
“He’s an omadhaun, a nuisance, that he is, sure,” said Tomé. “He’s a Mormon deacon that peddles bread an’ buys his flour from some one else because I won’t trust him. He’s the only Mormon in this blessed island. Every last soul is a Roman Cat’lic, except me, and I’m a believer in the leprechawn. Has that hooligan been thryin’ to work ye for a bottle of rum? He’ll talk a day for a drink.”
“What’s Momuni and Popay?”
“Momuni is the way they say ‘Mormons.’ The other’s the pope wid the accint on the last syllable. It’s the name for Cat’lics all over these seas, because they worship the pope iv Rome. The Popays run this island, but the Momunis have got Takaroa and some others by the tail.”
I turned to look at my guide, the bread-maker. I had new admiration for him. It took courage to be the one Mormon among a hundred Catholics, and to try to sell them the staff of life. But he could not withstand the withering glances of Tomé, and fled, with gestures to me which I could only hazard to mean to meet him later in the fearsome swamp, with the rum.
“Does Momuni owe you any money?” I asked the trader, who was lighting his wife’s cigarette.
“Does he? He owes me forty francs for flour, and I’ll nivir see the shadow iv them. I’ll tell ye, though, he’s the best baker in the Group, an’ they’re crazy about his bread.”