Ferlie left Cyprian among the lengthening shadows and, herself, moved slowly across the sunlit space, and so up the wooden steps, into the tiny forlorn mansion of God.
* * * * * *
By the time they had decided to settle the bungalow as their headquarters, and making expeditions in the motor-boat to the neighbouring islands whenever they desired complete isolation, Cyprian, whose instincts for research had awakened with the cessation of his ordinary work, brought Ferlie an oddly carved board covered with paintings and punctured sketches.
"The padre calls these Henta. They are samples of the form in which the Nicobarese preserve their legends, and I ask you to look at the tangled thread of Christianity running through the whole. Jellybrand has been explaining. The first man offended the Chief of the Spirits at the instigation of the first woman. The Spirit's name, Deuse, savours of the mission teaching by your Church. Here, you see Deuse, in arresting négligé, surrounded by his cooking-pots, and below him huts, trees, birds and dancing figures. Also mermaids and mermen, because dugongs and whales are indigenous to these waters. The Henta are made to please the iwi-ka, or good spirits, and to alarm iwi-pot or demons."
"You are an inquisitive soul, Cyprian. Are you hitting at the Missions, or what?"
"No. Except that, but for them, in this Eden we should have been able to escape the story of the Fall. Apart from that teaching, the people believe their origin dates from the time a shipwrecked sailor was cast up on these shores with a pet dog. By her he had a son whom she concealed in her leaf petticoat, or ngong, and this son, on attaining years of discretion, slew his father and married his mother to continue the race.
"Therefore, the young men wear a bow of coco-nut leaves on their foreheads, representing the ears of the dog-ancestor, and all dogs are well treated in her honour."
"And poor little Jellybrand is trying to replace their allegories with ours? The one they will really appreciate will be Jonah and the whale."
"The most ridiculous part of it all to me is the way that each race, temporarily in power here, has striven to produce a different form of Christianity. Think of the waste labour since 1756, after the Danish Mission departed and was followed by the Dutch. When the Dutch attempt at colonization failed, the Jesuits and Moravians were inspired to try their luck till the British took over with Danish consent in order to try and stop the piracy then rife in these waters. But I don't understand Jelly's line, Ferlie. He is not a Roman."
"In England he would belong to what was once known as the High Church Party, but now has developed into Anglo-Catholicism. I can easily imagine that his successor will probably have ultra-Protestant and anti-Catholic notions and solemnly smash the pink St. Paul and the battered Madonna which to-day are the pride of the converts."