"Pat is the man for thy."

(325.13-327.15)  Yesterday's reading was a bit on the "easier" end of the Wake spectrum, but that brief respite has ended with today's reading and the often vague, shifting identity of its characters.  It begins with a man who's referred to as "the head marines talebearer," who perhaps is the head tailor (or the head marine tailor).  He appears to address the Norwegian Captain, the "elderman adaptive of Capel Ysnod" (the captain, like HCE is an immigrant who has adopted Chapelizod as his home).  He says that he will find the captain a "faulter-in law, to become your son-to-be."

This head tailor, who is also called "the ships gopsfather" (making him the captain's godfather), tells the captive captain ("the husband's capture) that the time has come for peace between "soilers" (sailors) and "toilers" (tailors).  As "Gophar" (godfather) is speaking to "the nowedding captain, the rude hunnerable Humphrey," the captain prays to his (non-Christian) gods for deliverance.  It's no use, though, for the head tailor beckons the captain to come into the "shipfolds" of Ireland.  The head tailor goes on to tell the captain that he will now become an Irish Catholic or else "I'll rehearse your comeundermends and first mardhyr you entirely."  St. Patrick, the head tailor says, will guide the captain:  "Pat is the man for thy.  Ay ay!"  With this, the head tailor pulls the captain from behind the outhouse, makes the Sign of the Cross, and baptizes ("popetithes") him.  The captain's Christian name, fittingly, is "Erievikkingr," further cementing the captain-HCE connection.  The captain will now be Ireland's "hero chief explunderer of the clansakiltic" and will father a nation of "pukkaleens" (as McHugh notes, blending the Irish "buachallin" and Norwegian "pukkelen" to make a word for "little humpbacked boys").

The captain's not entirely on board with all this.  "Nansence," he says.  He's known for being against all religions, so it's unclear why he's submitted to this ritual.

Now begins a long paragraph, which looks to consist of a single sentence spanning two and a half pages.  So, the first bit of the sentence will conclude today's reading, and the rest will make up the next one.  The head tailor says to the captain -- his "secondnamed sutor" (who has been newly rechristened as part of his baptism and also is still wearing an old, secondhand suit) and "lately lamented sponsorship" (as the captain's godfather, the head tailor acted as his sponsor) -- that he's going to let him in "on some crismion dottrin."  This is both Christian doctrine and, as McHugh notes, Christan daughter (from the Icelandic "dottirin").  The daughter is "the lippeyear's wonder of Totty go," or the 29th girl of the age of 20, making her sound very reminiscent of Isabel.  There's a lot left in this paragraph, so next time we'll surely learn what's in store for the captain and this particular daughter.