[6]

00

PARMartin Cunningham, first, poked his silkhatted head into the creaking
carriage and, entering deftly, seated himself. Mr Power stepped in after him,
curving his height with care.

PAR—Come on, Simon.

PAR—After you, Mr Bloom said.

PARMr Dedalus covered himself quickly and got in, saying:

PAR—Yes, yes.

PAR—Are we all here now? Martin Cunningham asked. Come along, Bloom.

PARMr Bloom entered and sat in the vacant place. He pulled the door to
after him and slammed it twice till it shut tight. He passed an arm through

10

the armstrap and looked seriously from the open carriagewindow at the
lowered blinds of the avenue. One dragged aside: an old woman peeping.
Nose whiteflattened against the pane. Thanking her stars she was passed
over. Extraordinary the interest they take in a corpse. Glad to see us go we
give them such trouble coming. Job seems to suit them. Huggermugger in
corners. Slop about in slipperslappers for fear he'd wake. Then getting it
ready. Laying it out. Molly and Mrs Fleming making the bed. Pull it more
to your side. Our windingsheet. Never know who will touch you dead.
Wash and shampoo. I believe they clip the nails and the hair. Keep a bit in
an envelope. Grows all the same after. Unclean job.

20

PARAll waited. Nothing was said. Stowing in the wreaths probably. I am
sitting on something hard. Ah, that soap: in my hip pocket. Better shift it
out of that. Wait for an opportunity.

PARAll waited. Then wheels were heard from in front, turning: then
nearer: then horses' hoofs. A jolt. Their carriage began to move, creaking
and swaying. Other hoofs and creaking wheels started behind. The blinds
of the avenue passed and number nine with its craped knocker, door ajar.
At walking pace.

PARThey waited still, their knees jogging, till they had turned and were
passing along the tramtracks. Tritonville road. Quicker. The wheels rattled

30

rolling over the cobbled causeway and the crazy glasses shook rattling in
the doorframes.

PAR—What way is he taking us? Mr Power asked through both windows.

PAR—Irishtown, Martin Cunningham said. Ringsend. Brunswick street.

PARMr Dedalus nodded, looking out.

PAR—That's a fine old custom, he said. I am glad to see it has not died out.

PARAll watched awhile through their windows caps and hats lifted by passers.
Respect. The carriage swerved from the tramtrack to the smoother
road past Watery lane. Mr Bloom at gaze saw a lithe young man, clad in
mourning, a wide hat.

40

PAR—There's a friend of yours gone by, Dedalus, he said.

PAR—Who is that?

PAR—Your son and heir.

PAR—Where is he? Mr Dedalus said, stretching over across.

PARThe carriage, passing the open drains and mounds of rippedup
roadway before the tenement houses, lurched round the corner and,
swerving back to the tramtrack, rolled on noisily with chattering wheels.
Mr Dedalus fell back, saying:

PAR—Was that Mulligan cad with him? His fidus Achates!

PAR—No, Mr Bloom said. He was alone.

50

PAR—Down with his aunt Sally, I suppose, Mr Dedalus said, the Goulding
faction, the drunken little costdrawer and Crissie, papa's little lump of
dung, the wise child that knows her own father.

PARMr Bloom smiled joylessly on Ringsend road. Wallace Bros: the
bottleworks: Dodder bridge.

PARRichie Goulding and the legal bag. Goulding, Collis and Ward he
calls the firm. His jokes are getting a bit damp. Great card he was. Waltzing
in Stamer street with Ignatius Gallaher on a Sunday morning, the
landlady's two hats pinned on his head. Out on the rampage all night.
Beginning to tell on him now: that backache of his, I fear. Wife ironing his

60

back. Thinks he'll cure it with pills. All breadcrumbs they are. About six
hundred per cent profit.

PAR—He's in with a lowdown crowd, Mr Dedalus snarled. That Mulligan is a
contaminated bloody doubledyed ruffian by all accounts. His name stinks
all over Dublin. But with the help of God and His blessed mother I'll make
it my business to write a letter one of those days to his mother or his aunt or
whatever she is that will open her eye as wide as a gate. I'll tickle his
catastrophe, believe you me.

PARHe cried above the clatter of the wheels:

PAR—I won't have her bastard of a nephew ruin my son. A counterjumper's

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son. Selling tapes in my cousin, Peter Paul M'Swiney's. Not likely.

PARHe ceased. Mr Bloom glanced from his angry moustache to Mr
Power's mild face and Martin Cunningham's eyes and beard, gravely
shaking. Noisy selfwilled man. Full of his son. He is right. Something to
hand on. If little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the
house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son. Me in his eyes.
Strange feeling it would be. From me. Just a chance. Must have been that
morning in Raymond terrace she was at the window watching the two dogs
at it by the wall of the cease to do evil. And the sergeant grinning up. She

had that cream gown on with the rip she never stitched. Give us a touch,

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Poldy. God, I'm dying for it. How life begins.

PARGot big then. Had to refuse the Greystones concert. My son inside
her. I could have helped him on in life. I could. Make him independent.
Learn German too.

PAR—Are we late? Mr Power asked.

PAR—Ten minutes, Martin Cunningham said, looking at his watch.

PARMolly. Milly. Same thing watered down. Her tomboy oaths. O
jumping Jupiter! Ye gods and little fishes! Still, she's a dear girl. Soon be a
woman. Mullingar. Dearest Papli. Young student. Yes, yes: a woman too.
Life, life.

90

PARThe carriage heeled over and back, their four trunks swaying.

PAR—Corny might have given us a more commodious yoke, Mr Power said.

PAR—He might, Mr Dedalus said, if he hadn't that squint troubling him. Do
you follow me?

PARHe closed his left eye. Martin Cunningham began to brush away
crustcrumbs from under his thighs.

PAR—What is this, he said, in the name of God? Crumbs?

PAR—Someone seems to have been making a picnic party here lately, Mr Power
said.

PARAll raised their thighs and eyed with disfavour the mildewed

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buttonless leather of the seats. Mr Dedalus, twisting his nose, frowned
downward and said:

PAR—Unless I'm greatly mistaken ... What do you think, Martin?

PAR—It struck me too, Martin Cunningham said.

PARMr Bloom set his thigh down. Glad I took that bath. Feel my feet
quite clean. But I wish Mrs Fleming had darned these socks better.

PARMr Dedalus sighed resignedly.

PAR—After all, he said, it's the most natural thing in the world.

PAR—Did Tom Kernan turn up? Martin Cunningham asked, twirling the peak
of his beard gently.

110

PAR—Yes, Mr Bloom answered. He's behind with Ned Lambert and Hynes.

PAR—And Corny Kelleher himself? Mr Power asked.

PAR—At the cemetery, Martin Cunningham said.

PAR—I met M'Coy this morning, Mr Bloom said. He said he'd try to come.

PARThe carriage halted short.

PAR—What's wrong?

PAR—We're stopped.

PAR—Where are we?

PARMr Bloom put his head out of the window.

PAR—The grand canal, he said.

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PARGasworks. Whooping cough they say it cures. Good job Milly never
got it. Poor children! Doubles them up black and blue in convulsions.
Shame really. Got off lightly with illnesses compared. Only measles.
Flaxseed tea. Scarlatina, influenza epidemics. Canvassing for death. Don't

miss this chance. Dogs' home over there. Poor old Athos! Be good to Athos,
Leopold, is my last wish. Thy will be done. We obey them in the grave. A
dying scrawl. He took it to heart, pined away. Quiet brute. Old men's dogs
usually are.

PARA raindrop spat on his hat. He drew back and saw an instant of
shower spray dots over the grey flags. Apart. Curious. Like through a

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colander. I thought it would. My boots were creaking I remember now.

PAR—The weather is changing, he said quietly.

PAR—A pity it did not keep up fine, Martin Cunningham said.

PAR—Wanted for the country, Mr Power said. There's the sun again coming
out.

PARMr Dedalus, peering through his glasses towards the veiled sun,
hurled a mute curse at the sky.

PAR—It's as uncertain as a child's bottom, he said.

PAR—We're off again.

PARThe carriage turned again its stiff wheels and their trunks swayed

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gently. Martin Cunningham twirled more quickly the peak of his beard.

PAR—Tom Kernan was immense last night, he said. And Paddy Leonard taking
him off to his face.

PAR—O, draw him out, Martin, Mr Power said eagerly. Wait till you hear him,
Simon, on Ben Dollard's singing of The Croppy Boy.

PAR—Immense, Martin Cunningham said pompously. His singing of that simple
ballad, Martin, is the most trenchant rendering I ever heard in the whole
course of my experience.

PAR—Trenchant, Mr Power said laughing. He's dead nuts on that. And the
retrospective arrangement.

150

PAR—Did you read Dan Dawson's speech? Martin Cunningham asked.

PAR—I did not then, Mr Dedalus said. Where is it?

PAR—In the paper this morning.

PARMr Bloom took the paper from his inside pocket. That book I must
change for her.

PAR—No, no, Mr Dedalus said quickly. Later on please.

PARMr Bloom's glance travelled down the edge of the paper, scanning the
deaths: Callan, Coleman, Dignam, Fawcett, Lowry, Naumann, Peake, what
Peake is that? is it the chap was in Crosbie and Alleyne's? no, Sexton,
Urbright. Inked characters fast fading on the frayed breaking paper.

160

Thanks to the Little Flower. Sadly missed. To the inexpressible grief of his.
Aged 88 after a long and tedious illness. Month's mind: Quinlan. On whose
soul Sweet Jesus have mercy.

PARI tore up the envelope? Yes. Where did I put her letter after I read it in
the bath? He patted his waistcoatpocket. There all right. Dear Henry fled.

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Before my patience are exhausted.

PARNational school. Meade's yard. The hazard. Only two there now.
Nodding. Full as a tick. Too much bone in their skulls. The other trotting
round with a fare. An hour ago I was passing there. The jarvies raised their
hats.

PARA pointsman's back straightened itself upright suddenly against a
tramway standard by Mr Bloom's window. Couldn't they invent something
automatic so that the wheel itself much handier? Well but that fellow would
lose his job then? Well but then another fellow would get a job making the
new invention?

180

PARAntient concert rooms. Nothing on there. A man in a buff suit with a
crape armlet. Not much grief there. Quarter mourning. People in law
perhaps.

PARThey went past the bleak pulpit of saint Mark's, under the railway
bridge, past the Queen's theatre: in silence. Hoardings: Eugene Stratton,
Mrs Bandmann Palmer. Could I go to see Leah tonight, I wonder. I said I.
Or the Lily of Killarney? Elster Grimes Opera Company. Big powerful
change. Wet bright bills for next week. Fun on the Bristol. Martin
Cunningham could work a pass for the Gaiety. Have to stand a drink or
two. As broad as it's long.

190

PARHe's coming in the afternoon. Her songs.

PARPlasto's. Sir Philip Crampton's memorial fountain bust. Who was he?

PAR—How do you do? Martin Cunningham said, raising his palm to his brow
in salute.

PAR—He doesn't see us, Mr Power said. Yes, he does. How do you do?

PAR—Who? Mr Dedalus asked.

PAR—Blazes Boylan, Mr Power said. There he is airing his quiff.

PARJust that moment I was thinking.

PARMr Dedalus bent across to salute. From the door of the Red Bank the
white disc of a straw hat flashed reply: spruce figure: passed.

200

PARMr Bloom reviewed the nails of his left hand, then those of his right
hand. The nails, yes. Is there anything more in him that they she sees?
Fascination. Worst man in Dublin. That keeps him alive. They sometimes
feel what a person is. Instinct. But a type like that. My nails. I am just
looking at them: well pared. And after: thinking alone. Body getting a bit
softy. I would notice that: from remembering. What causes that? I suppose
the skin can't contract quickly enough when the flesh falls off. But the
shape is there. The shape is there still. Shoulders. Hips. Plump. Night of the
dance dressing. Shift stuck between the cheeks behind.

PARHe clasped his hands between his knees and, satisfied, sent his vacant

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glance over their faces.

PARMr Power asked:

PAR—How is the concert tour getting on, Bloom?

PAR—O, very well, Mr Bloom said. I hear great accounts of it. It's a good idea,
you see ...

PAR—Are you going yourself?

PAR—Well no, Mr Bloom said. In point of fact I have to go down to the county
Clare on some private business. You see the idea is to tour the chief towns.
What you lose on one you can make up on the other.

PAR—Quite so, Martin Cunningham said. Mary Anderson is up there now.

220

Have you good artists?

PAR—Louis Werner is touring her, Mr Bloom said. O yes, we'll have all
topnobbers. J. C. Doyle and John MacCormack I hope and. The best, in
fact.

PAR—And madame, Mr Power said smiling. Last but not least.

PARMr Bloom unclasped his hands in a gesture of soft politeness and
clasped them. Smith O'Brien. Someone has laid a bunch of flowers there.
Woman. Must be his deathday. For many happy returns. The carriage
wheeling by Farrell's statue united noiselessly their unresisting knees.

PAROot: a dullgarbed old man from the curbstone tendered his wares, his

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mouth opening: oot.

PAR—Four bootlaces for a penny.

PARWonder why he was struck off the rolls. Had his office in Hume
street. Same house as Molly's namesake, Tweedy, crown solicitor for
Waterford. Has that silk hat ever since. Relics of old decency. Mourning
too. Terrible comedown, poor wretch! Kicked about like snuff at a wake.
O'Callaghan on his last legs.

PARAnd madame. Twenty past eleven. Up. Mrs Fleming is in to clean.
Doing her hair, humming. Voglio e non vorrei. No. Vorrei e non. Looking
at the tips of her hairs to see if they are split. Mi trema un poco il. Beautiful

240

on that tre her voice is: weeping tone. A thrush. A throstle. There is a word
throstle that expresses that.

PARHis eyes passed lightly over Mr Power's goodlooking face. Greyish
over the ears. Madame: smiling. I smiled back. A smile goes a long way.
Only politeness perhaps. Nice fellow. Who knows is that true about the
woman he keeps? Not pleasant for the wife. Yet they say, who was it told
me, there is no carnal. You would imagine that would get played out pretty
quick. Yes, it was Crofton met him one evening bringing her a pound of
rumpsteak. What is this she was? Barmaid in Jury's. Or the Moira, was it?

PARThey passed under the hugecloaked Liberator's form.

250

PARMartin Cunningham nudged Mr Power.

PAR—Of the tribe of Reuben, he said.

PARA tall blackbearded figure, bent on a stick, stumping round the corner
of Elvery's Elephant house, showed them a curved hand open on his spine.

PAR—In all his pristine beauty, Mr Power said.

PARMr Dedalus looked after the stumping figure and said mildly:

PAR—The devil break the hasp of your back!

Mr Power, collapsing in laughter, shaded his face from the window as
the carriage passed Gray's statue.

PAR—We have all been there, Martin Cunningham said broadly.

260

PARHis eyes met Mr Bloom's eyes. He caressed his beard, adding:

PAR—Well, nearly all of us.

PARMr Bloom began to speak with sudden eagerness to his companions'
faces.

PAR—That's an awfully good one that's going the rounds about Reuben J and
the son.

PAR

PAR—About the boatman? Mr Power asked.

PAR—Yes. Isn't it awfully good?

PAR—What is that? Mr Dedalus asked. I didn't hear it.

PAR—There was a girl in the case, Mr Bloom began, and he determined to send

270

him to the Isle of Man out of harm's way but when they were both ...

PAR—What? Mr Dedalus asked. That confirmed bloody hobbledehoy is it?

PAR—Yes, Mr Bloom said. They were both on the way to the boat and he tried
to drown.....

PAR—Drown Barabbas! Mr Dedalus cried. I wish to Christ he did!

PARMr Power sent a long laugh down his shaded nostrils.

PAR—No, Mr Bloom said, the son himself....

PARMartin Cunningham thwarted his speech rudely:

PAR—Reuben and the son were piking it down the quay next the river on their
way to the Isle of Man boat and the young chiseller suddenly got loose and

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over the wall with him into the Liffey.

PAR—For God' sake! Mr Dedalus exclaimed in fright. Is he dead?

PAR—Dead! Martin Cunningham cried. Not he! A boatman got a pole and
fished him out by the slack of the breeches and he was landed up to the
father on the quay more dead than alive. Half the town was there.

PAR—Yes, Mr Bloom said. But the funny part is ....

PAR—And Reuben J, Martin Cunningham said, gave the boatman a florin for
saving his son's life.

PARA stifled sigh came from under Mr Power's hand.

PAR—O, he did, Martin Cunningham affirmed. Like a hero. A silver florin.

290

PAR—Isn't it awfully good? Mr Bloom said eagerly.

PAR—One and eightpence too much, Mr Dedalus said drily.

PARMr Power's choked laugh burst quietly in the carriage.

PARNelson's pillar.

PAR—Eight plums a penny! Eight for a penny!

PAR—We had better look a little serious, Martin Cunningham said.

PARMr Dedalus sighed.

PAR—Ah then indeed, he said, poor little Paddy wouldn't grudge us a laugh.
Many a good one he told himself.

PAR—The Lord forgive me! Mr Power said, wiping his wet eyes with his

300

fingers. Poor Paddy! I little thought a week ago when I saw him last and he  

was in his usual health that I'd be driving after him like this. He's gone
from us.

PAR—As decent a little man as ever wore a hat, Mr Dedalus said. He went very
suddenly.

PAR—Breakdown, Martin Cunningham said. Heart.

PARHe tapped his chest sadly.

PARBlazing face: redhot. Too much John Barleycorn. Cure for a red
nose. Drink like the devil till it turns adelite. A lot of money he spent
colouring it.

310

PARMr Power gazed at the passing houses with rueful apprehension.

PAR—He had a sudden death, poor fellow, he said.

PAR—The best death, Mr Bloom said.

PARTheir wideopen eyes looked at him.

PAR—No suffering, he said. A moment and all is over. Like dying in sleep.

PARNo-one spoke.

PARDead side of the street this. Dull business by day, land agents,
temperance hotel, Falconer's railway guide, civil service college, Gill's,
catholic club, the industrious blind. Why? Some reason. Sun or wind. At
night too. Chummies and slaveys. Under the patronage of the late Father

320

Mathew. Foundation stone for Parnell. Breakdown. Heart.

PARWhite horses with white frontlet plumes came round the Rotunda
corner, galloping. A tiny coffin flashed by. In a hurry to bury. A mourning
coach. Unmarried. Black for the married. Piebald for bachelors. Dun for a
nun.

PAR—Sad, Martin Cunningham said. A child.

PARA dwarf's face, mauve and wrinkled like little Rudy's was. Dwarf's
body, weak as putty, in a whitelined deal box. Burial friendly society pays.
Penny a week for a sod of turf. Our. Little. Beggar. Baby. Meant nothing.
Mistake of nature. If it's healthy it's from the mother. If not from the man.

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Better luck next time.

PAR—Poor little thing, Mr Dedalus said. It's well out of it.

PARThe carriage climbed more slowly the hill of Rutland square. Rattle
his bones. Over the stones. Only a pauper. Nobody owns.

PAR—In the midst of life, Martin Cunningham said.

PAR—But the worst of all, Mr Power said, is the man who takes his own life.

PARMartin Cunningham drew out his watch briskly, coughed and put it
back.

PAR—The greatest disgrace to have in the family, Mr Power added.

PAR—Temporary insanity, of course, Martin Cunningham said decisively. We

340

must take a charitable view of it.

PAR—They say a man who does it is a coward, Mr Dedalus said.

PAR—It is not for us to judge, Martin Cunningham said.

PARMr Bloom, about to speak, closed his lips again. Martin
Cunningham's large eyes. Looking away now. Sympathetic human man he
is. Intelligent. Like Shakespeare's face. Always a good word to say. They

have no mercy on that here or infanticide. Refuse christian burial. They
used to drive a stake of wood through his heart in the grave. As if it wasn't
broken already. Yet sometimes they repent too late. Found in the riverbed
clutching rushes. He looked at me. And that awful drunkard of a wife of

350

his. Setting up house for her time after time and then pawning the furniture
on him every Saturday almost. Leading him the life of the damned. Wear
the heart out of a stone, that. Monday morning. Start afresh. Shoulder to
the wheel. Lord, she must have looked a sight that night Dedalus told me he
was in there. Drunk about the place and capering with Martin's umbrella.

PARThe carriage rattled swiftly along Blessington street. Over the stones.

PAR—We are going the pace, I think, Martin Cunningham said.

PAR—God grant he doesn't upset us on the road, Mr Power said.

PAR—I hope not, Martin Cunningham said. That will be a great race tomorrow

370

in Germany. The Gordon Bennett.

PAR—Yes, by Jove, Mr Dedalus said. That will be worth seeing, faith.

PARAs they turned into Berkeley street a streetorgan near the Basin sent
over and after them a rollicking rattling song of the halls. Has anybody
here seen Kelly? Kay ee double ell wy. Dead March from Saul. He's as bad
as old Antonio. He left me on my ownio. Pirouette! The Mater
Misericordiae. Eccles street. My house down there. Big place. Ward for
incurables there. Very encouraging. Our Lady's Hospice for the dying.
Deadhouse handy underneath. Where old Mrs Riordan died. They look
terrible the women. Her feeding cup and rubbing her mouth with the

380

spoon. Then the screen round her bed for her to die. Nice young student
that was dressed that bite the bee gave me. He's gone over to the lying-in
hospital they told me. From one extreme to the other.

PARThe carriage galloped round a corner: stopped.

PAR—What's wrong now?

PARA divided drove of branded cattle passed the windows, lowing,
slouching by on padded hoofs, whisking their tails slowly on their clotted
bony croups. Outside them and through them ran raddled sheep bleating
their fear.

PAR—Emigrants, Mr Power said.

390

—Huuuh! the drover's voice cried, his switch sounding on their flanks.

PARHuuuh! out of that!

PARThursday, of course. Tomorrow is killing day. Springers. Cuffe sold
them about twentyseven quid each. For Liverpool probably. Roastbeef for
old England. They buy up all the juicy ones. And then the fifth quarter lost:
all that raw stuff, hide, hair, horns. Comes to a big thing in a year. Dead
meat trade. Byproducts of the slaughterhouses for tanneries, soap,
margarine. Wonder if that dodge works now getting dicky meat off the
train at Clonsilla.

PARThe carriage moved on through the drove.

400

PAR—I can't make out why the corporation doesn't run a tramline from the
parkgate to the quays, Mr Bloom said. All those animals could be taken in
trucks down to the boats.

PAR—Instead of blocking up the thoroughfare, Martin Cunningham said. Quite
right. They ought to.

PAR—Yes, Mr Bloom said, and another thing I often thought, is to have
municipal funeral trams like they have in Milan, you know. Run the line out
to the cemetery gates and have special trams, hearse and carriage and all.
Don't you see what I mean?

PAR—O, that be damned for a story, Mr Dedalus said. Pullman car and saloon

410

diningroom.

PAR—A poor lookout for Corny, Mr Power added.

PAR—Why? Mr Bloom asked, turning to Mr Dedalus. Wouldn't it be more
decent than galloping two abreast?

PAR—Well, there's something in that, Mr Dedalus granted.

PAR—And, Martin Cunningham said, we wouldn't have scenes like that when
the hearse capsized round Dunphy's and upset the coffin on to the road.

PAR—That was terrible, Mr Power's shocked face said, and the corpse fell
about the road. Terrible!

PAR—First round Dunphy's, Mr Dedalus said, nodding. Gordon Bennett cup.

420

PAR—Praises be to God! Martin Cunningham said piously.

PARBom! Upset. A coffin bumped out on to the road. Burst open. Paddy
Dignam shot out and rolling over stiff in the dust in a brown habit too large
for him. Red face: grey now. Mouth fallen open. Asking what's up now.
Quite right to close it. Looks horrid open. Then the insides decompose
quickly. Much better to close up all the orifices. Yes, also. With wax. The
sphincter loose. Seal up all.

PAR—Dunphy's, Mr Power announced as the carriage turned right.

PARDunphy's corner. Mourning coaches drawn up, drowning their grief.
A pause by the wayside. Tiptop position for a pub. Expect we'll pull up here

430

on the way back to drink his health. Pass round the consolation. Elixir of
life.

PARBut suppose now it did happen. Would he bleed if a nail say cut him in
the knocking about? He would and he wouldn't, I suppose. Depends on

where. The circulation stops. Still some might ooze out of an artery. It
would be better to bury them in red: a dark red.

PARIn silence they drove along Phibsborough road. An empty hearse
trotted by, coming from the cemetery: looks relieved.

PARCrossguns bridge: the royal canal.

PARWater rushed roaring through the sluices. A man stood on his

440

dropping barge, between clamps of turf. On the towpath by the lock a
slacktethered horse. Aboard of the Bugabu.

PARTheir eyes watched him. On the slow weedy waterway he had floated
on his raft coastward over Ireland drawn by a haulage rope past beds of
reeds, over slime, mudchoked bottles, carrion dogs. Athlone, Mullingar,
Moyvalley, I could make a walking tour to see Milly by the canal. Or cycle
down. Hire some old crock, safety. Wren had one the other day at the
auction but a lady's. Developing waterways. James M'Cann's hobby to row
me o'er the ferry. Cheaper transit. By easy stages. Houseboats. Camping
out. Also hearses. To heaven by water. Perhaps I will without writing.

450

Come as a surprise, Leixlip, Clonsilla. Dropping down lock by lock to
Dublin. With turf from the midland bogs. Salute. He lifted his brown straw
hat, saluting Paddy Dignam.

PARThey drove on past Brian Boroimhe house. Near it now.

PAR—I wonder how is our friend Fogarty getting on, Mr Power said.

PAR—Better ask Tom Kernan, Mr Dedalus said.

PAR—How is that? Martin Cunningham said. Left him weeping, I suppose?

PAR—Though lost to sight, Mr Dedalus said, to memory dear.

PARThe carriage steered left for Finglas road.

PARThe stonecutter's yard on the right. Last lap. Crowded on the spit of

460

land silent shapes appeared, white, sorrowful, holding out calm hands, knelt
in grief, pointing. Fragments of shapes, hewn. In white silence: appealing.
The best obtainable. Thos. H. Dennany, monumental builder and sculptor.

PARPassed.

PAROn the curbstone before Jimmy Geary, the sexton's, an old tramp sat,
grumbling, emptying the dirt and stones out of his huge dustbrown
yawning boot. After life's journey.

PARGloomy gardens then went by: one by one: gloomy houses.

PARMr Power pointed.

PAR—That is where Childs was murdered, he said. The last house.

[X]

470

PAR—So it is, Mr Dedalus said. A gruesome case. Seymour Bushe got him off.

PARMurdered his brother. Or so they said.

PAR—The crown had no evidence, Mr Power said.

PAR—Only circumstantial, Martin Cunningham added. That's the maxim of
the law. Better for ninetynine guilty to escape than for one innocent person
to be wrongfully condemned.

PARThey looked. Murderer's ground. It passed darkly. Shuttered,
tenantless, unweeded garden. Whole place gone to hell. Wrongfully
condemned. Murder. The murderer's image in the eye of the murdered.

They love reading about it. Man's head found in a garden. Her clothing

480

consisted of. How she met her death. Recent outrage. The weapon used.
Murderer is still at large. Clues. A shoelace. The body to be exhumed.
Murder will out.

PARCramped in this carriage. She mightn't like me to come that way
without letting her know. Must be careful about women. Catch them once
with their pants down. Never forgive you after. Fifteen.

PARThe high railings of Prospect rippled past their gaze. Dark poplars,
rare white forms. Forms more frequent, white shapes thronged amid the
trees, white forms and fragments streaming by mutely, sustaining vain
gestures on the air.

490

PARThe felly harshed against the curbstone: stopped. Martin
Cunningham put out his arm and, wrenching back the handle, shoved the
door open with his knee. He stepped out. Mr Power and Mr Dedalus
followed.

PARChange that soap now. Mr Bloom's hand unbuttoned his hip pocket
swiftly and transferred the paperstuck soap to his inner handkerchief
pocket. He stepped out of the carriage, replacing the newspaper his other
hand still held.

PARPaltry funeral: coach and three carriages. It's all the same.
Pallbearers, gold reins, requiem mass, firing a volley. Pomp of death.

500

Beyond the hind carriage a hawker stood by his barrow of cakes and fruit.
Simnel cakes those are, stuck together: cakes for the dead. Dogbiscuits.
Who ate them? Mourners coming out.

PARHe followed his companions. Mr Kernan and Ned Lambert followed,
Hynes walking after them. Corny Kelleher stood by the opened hearse and
took out the two wreaths. He handed one to the boy.

PARWhere is that child's funeral disappeared to?

PARA team of horses passed from Finglas with toiling plodding tread,
dragging through the funereal silence a creaking waggon on which lay a
granite block. The waggoner marching at their head saluted. Coffin now.

510

Got here before us, dead as he is. Horse looking round at it with his plume
skeowways. Dull eye: collar tight on his neck, pressing on a bloodvessel or
something. Do they know what they cart out here every day? Must be
twenty or thirty funerals every day. Then Mount Jerome for the
protestants. Funerals all over the world everywhere every minute.
Shovelling them under by the cartload doublequick. Thousands every hour.
Too many in the world.

PARMourners came out through the gates: woman and a girl. Leanjawed
harpy, hard woman at a bargain, her bonnet awry. Girl's face stained with
dirt and tears, holding the woman's arm, looking up at her for a sign to cry.

520

Fish's face, bloodless and livid.

PARThe mutes shouldered the coffin and bore it in through the gates. So
much dead weight. Felt heavier myself stepping out of that bath. First the

stiff: then the friends of the stiff. Corny Kelleher and the boy followed with
their wreaths. Who is that beside them? Ah, the brother-in-law.

PARAll walked after.

PARMartin Cunningham whispered:

PAR—I was in mortal agony with you talking of suicide before Bloom.

PAR—What? Mr Power whispered. How so?

PAR—His father poisoned himself, Martin Cunningham whispered. Had the

530

Queen's hotel in Ennis. You heard him say he was going to Clare.
Anniversary.

PAR—O God! Mr Power whispered. First I heard of it. Poisoned himself?

PARHe glanced behind him to where a face with dark thinking eyes
followed towards the cardinal's mausoleum. Speaking.

PAR—Was he insured? Mr Bloom asked.

PAR—I believe so, Mr Kernan answered. But the policy was heavily mortgaged.
Martin is trying to get the youngster into Artane.

PAR—How many children did he leave?

PAR—Five. Ned Lambert says he'll try to get one of the girls into Todd's.

540

PAR—A sad case, Mr Bloom said gently. Five young children.

PAR—A great blow to the poor wife, Mr Kernan added.

PAR—Indeed yes, Mr Bloom agreed.

PARHas the laugh at him now.

PARHe looked down at the boots he had blacked and polished. She had
outlived him. Lost her husband. More dead for her than for me. One must
outlive the other. Wise men say. There are more women than men in the
world. Condole with her. Your terrible loss. I hope you'll soon follow him.
For Hindu widows only. She would marry another. Him? No. Yet who
knows after. Widowhood not the thing since the old queen died. Drawn on

550

a guncarriage. Victoria and Albert. Frogmore memorial mourning. But in
the end she put a few violets in her bonnet. Vain in her heart of hearts. All
for a shadow. Consort not even a king. Her son was the substance.
Something new to hope for not like the past she wanted back, waiting. It
never comes. One must go first: alone, under the ground: and lie no more
in her warm bed.

PAR—How are you, Simon? Ned Lambert said softly, clasping hands. Haven't
seen you for a month of Sundays.

PAR—Never better. How are all in Cork's own town?

PAR—I was down there for the Cork park races on Easter Monday, Ned

560

Lambert said. Same old six and eightpence. Stopped with Dick Tivy.

PAR—And how is Dick, the solid man?

PAR—Nothing between himself and heaven, Ned Lambert answered.

PAR—By the holy Paul! Mr Dedalus said in subdued wonder. Dick Tivy bald?

PAR—Martin is going to get up a whip for the youngsters, Ned Lambert said,
pointing ahead. A few bob a skull. Just to keep them going till the insurance
is cleared up.

PAR—Yes, yes, Mr Dedalus said dubiously. Is that the eldest boy in front?

PAR—Yes, Ned Lambert said, with the wife's brother. John Henry Menton is
behind. He put down his name for a quid.

570

PAR—I'll engage he did, Mr Dedalus said. I often told poor Paddy he ought to
mind that job. John Henry is not the worst in the world.

PAR—How did he lose it? Ned Lambert asked. Liquor, what?

PAR—Many a good man's fault, Mr Dedalus said with a sigh.

PARThey halted about the door of the mortuary chapel. Mr Bloom stood
behind the boy with the wreath looking down at his sleekcombed hair and
at the slender furrowed neck inside his brandnew collar. Poor boy! Was he
there when the father? Both unconscious. Lighten up at the last moment
and recognise for the last time. All he might have done. I owe three shillings
to O'Grady. Would he understand? The mutes bore the coffin into the

580

chapel. Which end is his head?

PARAfter a moment he followed the others in, blinking in the screened
light. The coffin lay on its bier before the chancel, four tall yellow candles at
its corners. Always in front of us. Corny Kelleher, laying a wreath at each
fore corner, beckoned to the boy to kneel. The mourners knelt here and
there in prayingdesks. Mr Bloom stood behind near the font and, when all
had knelt, dropped carefully his unfolded newspaper from his pocket and
knelt his right knee upon it. He fitted his black hat gently on his left knee
and, holding its brim, bent over piously.

PARA server bearing a brass bucket with something in it came out through

590

a door. The whitesmocked priest came after him, tidying his stole with one
hand, balancing with the other a little book against his toad's belly. Who'll
read the book? I, said the rook.

PARThey halted by the bier and the priest began to read out of his book
with a fluent croak.

PARFather Coffey. I knew his name was like a coffin. Dominenamine.
Bully about the muzzle he looks. Bosses the show. Muscular christian. Woe
betide anyone that looks crooked at him: priest. Thou art Peter. Burst
sideways like a sheep in clover Dedalus says he will. With a belly on him
like a poisoned pup. Most amusing expressions that man finds. Hhhn: burst

600

sideways.

PAR—Non intres in judicium cum servo tuo, Domine.

PARMakes them feel more important to be prayed over in Latin. Requiem
mass. Crape weepers. Blackedged notepaper. Your name on the altarlist.
Chilly place this. Want to feed well, sitting in there all the morning in the
gloom kicking his heels waiting for the next please. Eyes of a toad too.
What swells him up that way? Molly gets swelled after cabbage. Air of the
place maybe. Looks full up of bad gas. Must be an infernal lot of bad gas
round the place. Butchers, for instance: they get like raw beefsteaks. Who
was telling me? Mervyn Browne. Down in the vaults of saint Werburgh's

610

lovely old organ hundred and fifty they have to bore a hole in the coffins

sometimes to let out the bad gas and burn it. Out it rushes: blue. One whiff
of that and you're a doner.

PARMy kneecap is hurting me. Ow. That's better.

PARThe priest took a stick with a knob at the end of it out of the boy's
bucket and shook it over the coffin. Then he walked to the other end and
shook it again. Then he came back and put it back in the bucket. As you
were before you rested. It's all written down: he has to do it.

PAR—Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.

PARThe server piped the answers in the treble. I often thought it would be

620

better to have boy servants. Up to fifteen or so. After that, of course ...

PARHoly water that was, I expect. Shaking sleep out of it. He must be fed
up with that job, shaking that thing over all the corpses they trot up. What
harm if he could see what he was shaking it over. Every mortal day a fresh
batch: middleaged men, old women, children, women dead in childbirth,
men with beards, baldheaded businessmen, consumptive girls with little
sparrows' breasts. All the year round he prayed the same thing over them
all and shook water on top of them: sleep. On Dignam now.

PAR—In paradisum.

PARSaid he was going to paradise or is in paradise. Says that over

630

everybody. Tiresome kind of a job. But he has to say something.

PARThe priest closed his book and went off, followed by the server.
Corny Kelleher opened the sidedoors and the gravediggers came in, hoisted
the coffin again, carried it out and shoved it on their cart. Corny Kelleher
gave one wreath to the boy and one to the brother-in-law. All followed
them out of the sidedoors into the mild grey air. Mr Bloom came last
folding his paper again into his pocket. He gazed gravely at the ground till
the coffincart wheeled off to the left. The metal wheels ground the gravel
with a sharp grating cry and the pack of blunt boots followed the trundled
barrow along a lane of sepulchres.

640

PARThe ree the ra the ree the ra the roo. Lord, I mustn't lilt here.

PAR—The O'Connell circle, Mr Dedalus said about him.

PARMr Power's soft eyes went up to the apex of the lofty cone.

PAR—He's at rest, he said, in the middle of his people, old Dan O'. But his heart
is buried in Rome. How many broken hearts are buried here, Simon!

PAR—Her grave is over there, Jack, Mr Dedalus said. I'll soon be stretched
beside her. Let Him take me whenever He likes.

PARBreaking down, he began to weep to himself quietly, stumbling a little
in his walk. Mr Power took his arm.

PAR—She's better where she is, he said kindly.

650

PAR—I suppose so, Mr Dedalus said with a weak gasp. I suppose she is in
heaven if there is a heaven.

PARCorny Kelleher stepped aside from his rank and allowed the
mourners to plod by.

PAR—Sad occasions, Mr Kernan began politely.

PARMr Bloom closed his eyes and sadly twice bowed his head.

PAR—The others are putting on their hats, Mr Kernan said. I suppose we can
do so too. We are the last. This cemetery is a treacherous place.

PARThey covered their heads.

PAR—The reverend gentleman read the service too quickly, don't you think? Mr

660

Kernan said with reproof.

PARMr Bloom nodded gravely looking in the quick bloodshot eyes. Secret
eyes, secretsearching. Mason, I think: not sure. Beside him again. We arc
the last. In the same boat. Hope he'll say something else.

PARMr Kernan added:

PAR—The service of the Irish church used in Mount Jerome is simpler, more
impressive I must say.

PARMr Bloom gave prudent assent. The language of course was another
thing.

PARMr Kernan said with solemnity:

670

PAR—I am the resurrection and the life. That touches a man's inmost heart.

PAR—It does, Mr Bloom said.

PARYour heart perhaps but what price the fellow in the six feet by two
with his toes to the daisies? No touching that. Seat of the affections. Broken
heart. A pump after all, pumping thousands of gallons of blood every day.
One fine day it gets bunged up: and there you are. Lots of them lying
around here: lungs, hearts, livers. Old rusty pumps: damn the thing else.
The resurrection and the life. Once you are dead you are dead. That last
day idea. Knocking them all up out of their graves. Come forth, Lazarus!
And he came fifth and lost the job. Get up! Last day! Then every fellow

680

mousing around for his liver and his lights and the rest of his traps. Find
damn all of himself that morning. Pennyweight of powder in a skull.
Twelve grammes one pennyweight. Troy measure.

PARCorny Kelleher fell into step at their side.

PAR—Everything went off A 1, he said. What?

PARHe looked on them from his drawling eye. Policeman's shoulders.
With your tooraloom tooraloom.

PAR—As it should be, Mr Kernan said.

PAR—What? Eh? Corny Kelleher said.

PARMr Kernan assured him.

690

PAR—Who is that chap behind with Tom Kernan? John Henry Menton asked. I
know his face.

PARNed Lambert glanced back.

PAR—Bloom, he said, Madame Marion Tweedy that was, is, I mean, the
soprano. She's his wife.

PAR—O, to be sure, John Henry Menton said. I haven't seen her for some time.
She was a finelooking woman. I danced with her, wait, fifteen seventeen
golden years ago, at Mat Dillon's in Roundtown. And a good armful she
was.

PARHe looked behind through the others.

700

PAR—What is he? he asked. What does he do? Wasn't he in the stationery line?
I fell foul of him one evening, I remember, at bowls.

PARNed Lambert smiled.

PAR—Yes, he was, he said, in Wisdom Hely's. A traveller for blottingpaper.

PAR—In God's name, John Henry Menton said, what did she marry a coon like
that for? She had plenty of game in her then.

PAR—Has still, Ned Lambert said. He does some canvassing for ads.

PARJohn Henry Menton's large eyes stared ahead.

PARThe barrow turned into a side lane. A portly man, ambushed among
the grasses, raised his hat in homage. The gravediggers touched their caps.

710

PAR—John O'Connell, Mr Power said pleased. He never forgets a friend.

PARMr O'Connell shook all their hands in silence. Mr Dedalus said:

PAR—I am come to pay you another visit.

PAR—My dear Simon, the caretaker answered in a low voice. I don't want your
custom at all.

PARSaluting Ned Lambert and John Henry Menton he walked on at
Martin Cunningham's side puzzling two long keys at his back.

PAR—Did you hear that one, he asked them, about Mulcahy from the Coombe?

PAR—I did not, Martin Cunningham said.

PARThey bent their silk hats in concert and Hynes inclined his ear. The

720

caretaker hung his thumbs in the loops of his gold watchchain and spoke in
a discreet tone to their vacant smiles.

PAR—They tell the story, he said, that two drunks came out here one foggy
evening to look for the grave of a friend of theirs. They asked for Mulcahy
from the Coombe and were told where he was buried. After traipsing about
in the fog they found the grave sure enough. One of the drunks spelt out the
name: Terence Mulcahy. The other drunk was blinking up at a statue of
Our Saviour the widow had got put up.

PARThe caretaker blinked up at one of the sepulchres they passed. He
resumed:

730

PAR—And, after blinking up at the sacred figure, Not a bloody bit like the man,
says he. That's not Mulcahy, says he, whoever done it.

PARRewarded by smiles he fell back and spoke with Corny Kelleher,
accepting the dockets given him, turning them over and scanning them as he
walked.

PAR—That's all done with a purpose, Martin Cunningham explained to Hynes.

PAR—I know, Hynes said. I know that.

PAR—To cheer a fellow up, Martin Cunningham said. It's pure good-
heartedness: damn the thing else.

PARMr Bloom admired the caretaker's prosperous bulk. All want to be on

740

good terms with him. Decent fellow, John O'Connell, real good sort. Keys:
like Keyes's ad: no fear of anyone getting out. No passout checks. Habeas
corpus. I must see about that ad after the funeral. Did I write Ballsbridge on
the envelope I took to cover when she disturbed me writing to Martha?

Hope it's not chucked in the dead letter office. Be the better of a shave. Grey
sprouting beard. That's the first sign when the hairs come out grey. And
temper getting cross. Silver threads among the grey. Fancy being his wife.
Wonder he had the gumption to propose to any girl. Come out and live in
the graveyard. Dangle that before her. It might thrill her first. Courting
death. Shades of night hovering here with all the dead stretched about. The

750

shadows of the tombs when churchyards yawn and Daniel O'Connell must
be a descendant I suppose who is this used to say he was a queer breedy
man great catholic all the same like a big giant in the dark. Will o' the wisp.
Gas of graves. Want to keep her mind off it to conceive at all. Women
especially are so touchy. Tell her a ghost story in bed to make her sleep.
Have you ever seen a ghost? Well, I have. It was a pitchdark night. The
clock was on the stroke of twelve. Still they'd kiss all right if properly keyed
up. Whores in Turkish graveyards. Learn anything if taken young. You
might pick up a young widow here. Men like that. Love among the
tombstones. Romeo. Spice of pleasure. In the midst of death we are in life.

760

Both ends meet. Tantalising for the poor dead. Smell of grilled beefsteaks to
the starving. Gnawing their vitals. Desire to grig people. Molly wanting to
do it at the window. Eight children he has anyway.

PARHe has seen a fair share go under in his time, lying around him field
after field. Holy fields. More room if they buried them standing. Sitting or
kneeling you couldn't. Standing? His head might come up some day above
ground in a landslip with his hand pointing. All honeycombed the ground
must be: oblong cells. And very neat he keeps it too: trim grass and edgings.
His garden Major Gamble calls Mount Jerome. Well, so it is. Ought to be
flowers of sleep. Chinese cemeteries with giant poppies growing produce the

770

best opium Mastiansky told me. The Botanic Gardens are just over there.
It's the blood sinking in the earth gives new life. Same idea those jews they
said killed the christian boy. Every man his price. Well preserved fat corpse,
gentleman, epicure, invaluable for fruit garden. A bargain. By carcass of
William Wilkinson, auditor and accountant, lately deceased, three pounds
thirteen and six. With thanks.

PARI daresay the soil would be quite fat with corpsemanure, bones, flesh,
nails. Charnelhouses. Dreadful. Turning green and pink decomposing. Rot
quick in damp earth. The lean old ones tougher. Then a kind of a tallowy
kind of a cheesy. Then begin to get black, black treacle oozing out of them.

780

Then dried up. Deathmoths. Of course the cells or whatever they are go on
living. Changing about. Live for ever practically. Nothing to feed on feed
on themselves.

PARBut they must breed a devil of a lot of maggots. Soil must be simply
swirling with them. Your head it simply swurls. Those pretty little seaside
gurls. He looks cheerful enough over it. Gives him a sense of power seeing
all the others go under first. Wonder how he looks at life. Cracking his
jokes too: warms the cockles of his heart. The one about the bulletin.
Spurgeon went to heaven 4 a.m. this morning. 11 p.m. (closing time). Not  

arrived yet. Peter. The dead themselves the men anyhow would like to hear

790

an odd joke or the women to know what's in fashion. A juicy pear or
ladies' punch, hot, strong and sweet. Keep out the damp. You must laugh
sometimes so better do it that way. Gravediggers in Hamlet. Shows the
profound knowledge of the human heart. Daren't joke about the dead for
two years at least. De mortuis nil nisi prius. Go out of mourning first. Hard
to imagine his funeral. Seems a sort of a joke. Read your own obituary
notice they say you live longer. Gives you second wind. New lease of life.

PAR—How many have-you for tomorrow? the caretaker asked.

PAR—Two, Corny Kelleher said. Half ten and eleven.

PARThe caretaker put the papers in his pocket. The barrow had ceased to

800

trundle. The mourners split and moved to each side of the hole, stepping
with care round the graves. The gravediggers bore the coffin and set its nose
on the brink, looping the bands round it.

PARBurying him. We come to bury Caesar. His ides of March or June.
He doesn't know who is here nor care.

PARNow who is that lankylooking galoot over there in the macintosh?
Now who is he I'd like to know? Now I'd give a trifle to know who he is.
Always someone turns up you never dreamt of. A fellow could live on his
lonesome all his life. Yes, he could. Still he'd have to get someone to sod him
after he died though he could dig his own grave. We all do. Only man

810

buries. No, ants too. First thing strikes anybody. Bury the dead. Say
Robinson Crusoe was true to life. Well then Friday buried him. Every
Friday buries a Thursday if you come to look at it.

PARMr Bloom stood far back, his hat in his hand, counting the bared
heads. Twelve. I'm thirteen. No. The chap in the macintosh is thirteen.
Death's number. Where the deuce did he pop out of? He wasn't in the
chapel, that I'll swear. Silly superstition that about thirteen.

PARNice soft tweed Ned Lambert has in that suit. Tinge of purple. I had
one like that when we lived in Lombard street west. Dressy fellow he was

830

once. Used to change three suits in the day. Must get that grey suit of mine
turned by Mesias. Hello. It's dyed. His wife I forgot he's not married or his
landlady ought to have picked out those threads for him.

PARThe coffin dived out of sight, eased down by the men straddled on the
gravetrestles. They struggled up and out: and all uncovered. Twenty.

PARPause.

PARIf we were all suddenly somebody else.

PARFar away a donkey brayed. Rain. No such ass. Never see a dead one,
they say. Shame of death. They hide. Also poor papa went away.

PARGentle sweet air blew round the bared heads in a whisper. Whisper.

840

The boy by the gravehead held his wreath with both hands staring quietly
in the black open space. Mr Bloom moved behind the portly kindly
caretaker. Wellcut frockcoat. Weighing them up perhaps to see which will
go next. Well, it is a long rest. Feel no more. It's the moment you feel. Must
be damned unpleasant. Can't believe it at first. Mistake must be: someone
else. Try the house opposite. Wait, I wanted to. I haven't yet. Then
darkened deathchamber. Light they want. Whispering around you. Would
you like to see a priest? Then rambling and wandering. Delirium all you hid
all your life. The death struggle. His sleep is not natural. Press his lower
eyelid. Watching is his nose pointed is his jaw sinking are the soles of his

850

feet yellow. Pull the pillow away and finish it off on the floor since he's
doomed. Devil in that picture of sinner's death showing him a woman.
Dying to embrace her in his shirt. Last act of Lucia. Shall I nevermore
behold thee? Bam! He expires. Gone at last. People talk about you a bit:
forget you. Don't forget to pray for him. Remember him in your prayers.
Even Parnell. Ivy day dying out. Then they follow: dropping into a hole,
one after the other.

PARWe are praying now for the repose of his soul. Hoping you're well
and not in hell. Nice change of air. Out of the fryingpan of life into the fire
of purgatory.

860

PARDoes he ever think of the hole waiting for himself? They say you do
when you shiver in the sun. Someone walking over it. Callboy's warning.
Near you. Mine over there towards Finglas, the plot I bought. Mamma,
poor mamma, and little Rudy.

PARThe gravediggers took up their spades and flung heavy clods of clay
in on the coffin. Mr Bloom turned away his face. And if he was alive all the
time? Whew! By jingo, that would be awful! No, no: he is dead, of course.
Of course he is dead. Monday he died. They ought to have some law to
pierce the heart and make sure or an electric clock or a telephone in the
coffin and some kind of a canvas airhole. Flag of distress. Three days.

870

Rather long to keep them in summer. Just as well to get shut of them as
soon as you are sure there's no.

PARThe clay fell softer. Begin to be forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind.

PARThe caretaker moved away a few paces and put on his hat. Had
enough of it. The mourners took heart of grace, one by one, covering
themselves without show. Mr Bloom put on his hat and saw the portly
figure make its way deftly through the maze of graves. Quietly, sure of his
ground, he traversed the dismal fields.

PARHynes jotting down something in his notebook. Ah, the names. But he
knows them all. No: coming to me.

880

PAR—I am just taking the names, Hynes said below his breath. What is your
christian name? I'm not sure.

PAR—L, Mr Bloom said. Leopold. And you might put down M'Coy's name too.
He asked me to.

PAR—Charley, Hynes said writing. I know. He was on the Freeman once.

PARSo he was before he got the job in the morgue under Louis Byrne.
Good idea a postmortem for doctors. Find out what they imagine they
know. He died of a Tuesday. Got the run. Levanted with the cash of a few
ads. Charley, you're my darling. That was why he asked me to. O well,
does no harm. I saw to that, M'Coy. Thanks, old chap: much obliged.

890

Leave him under an obligation: costs nothing.

PAR—And tell us, Hynes said, do you know that fellow in the, fellow was over
there in the...

PARHe looked around.

PAR—Macintosh. Yes, I saw him, Mr Bloom said. Where is he now?

PAR—M'Intosh, Hynes said scribbling. I don't know who he is. Is that his
name?

PARHe moved away, looking about him.

PAR—No, Mr Bloom began, turning and stopping. I say, Hynes!

PARDidn't hear. What? Where has he disappeared to? Not a sign. Well of

900

all the. Has anybody here seen? Kay ee double ell. Become invisible. Good
Lord, what became of him?

PARA seventh gravedigger came beside Mr Bloom to take up an idle
spade.

PAR—O, excuse me!

PARHe stepped aside nimbly.

PARClay, brown, damp, began to be seen in the hole. It rose. Nearly over.
A mound of damp clods rose more, rose, and the gravediggers rested their
spades. All uncovered again for a few instants. The boy propped his wreath
against a corner: the brother-in-law his on a lump. The gravediggers put on

910

their caps and carried their earthy spades towards the barrow. Then
knocked the blades lightly on the turf: clean. One bent to pluck from the
haft a long tuft of grass. One, leaving his mates, walked slowly on with
shouldered weapon, its blade blueglancing. Silently at the gravehead
another coiled the coffinband. His navelcord. The brother-in-law, turning
away, placed something in his free hand. Thanks in silence. Sorry, sir:
trouble. Headshake. I know that. For yourselves just.

PARThe mourners moved away slowly without aim, by devious paths,
staying at whiles to read a name on a tomb.

PAR—Let us go round by the chief's grave, Hynes said. We have time.

920

PAR—Let us, Mr Power said.

PARThey turned to the right, following their slow thoughts. With awe Mr
Power's blank voice spoke:

PAR—Some say he is not in that grave at all. That the coffin was filled with
stones. That one day he will come again.

PARHynes shook his head.

PAR—Parnell will never come again, he said. He's there, all that was mortal of
him. Peace to his ashes.

PARMr Bloom walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels,
crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes,

930

old Ireland's hearts and hands. More sensible to spend the money on some
charity for the living. Pray for the repose of the soul of. Does anybody
really? Plant him and have done with him. Like down a coalshoot. Then
lump them together to save time. All souls' day. Twentyseventh I'll be at his
grave. Ten shillings for the gardener. He keeps it free of weeds. Old man
himself. Bent down double with his shears clipping. Near death's door.
Who passed away. Who departed this life. As if they did it of their own
accord. Got the shove, all of them. Who kicked the bucket. More interesting
if they told you what they were. So and So, wheelwright. I travelled for
cork lino. I paid five shillings in the pound. Or a woman's with her

940

saucepan. I cooked good Irish stew. Eulogy in a country churchyard it
ought to be that poem of whose is it Wordsworth or Thomas Campbell.
Entered into rest the protestants put it. Old Dr Murren's. The great
physician called him home. Well it's God's acre for them. Nice country
residence. Newly plastered and painted. Ideal spot to have a quiet smoke
and read the Church Times. Marriage ads they never try to beautify. Rusty
wreaths hung on knobs, garlands of bronzefoil. Better value that for the
money. Still, the flowers are more poetical. The other gets rather tiresome,
never withering. Expresses nothing. Immortelles.

PARA bird sat tamely perched on a poplar branch. Like stuffed. Like the

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wedding present alderman Hooper gave uls. Hoo! Not a budge out of him.
Knows there are no catapults to let fly at him. Dead animal even sadder.
Silly-Milly burying the little dead bird in the kitchen matchbox, a
daisychain and bits of broken chainies on the grave.

PARThe Sacred Heart that is: showing it. Heart on his sleeve. Ought to be
sideways and red it should be painted like a real heart. Ireland was
dedicated to it or whatever that. Seems anything but pleased. Why this
infliction? Would birds come then and peck like the boy with the basket of
fruit but he said no because they ought to have been afraid of the boy.
Apollo that was.

960

PARHow many! All these here once walked round Dublin. Faithful
departed. As you are now so once were we.

PARBesides how could you remember everybody? Eyes, walk, voice. Well,
the voice, yes: gramophone. Have a gramophone in every grave or keep it
in the house. After dinner on a Sunday. Put on poor old greatgrandfather.
Kraahraark! Hellohellohello amawfullyglad kraark awfullygladaseeagain
hellohello amawf krpthsth. Remind you of the voice like the photograph
reminds you of the face. Otherwise you couldn't remember the face after

fifteen years, say. For instance who? For instance some fellow that died
when I was in Wisdom Hely's.

970

PARRtststr! A rattle of pebbles. Wait. Stop!

PARHe looked down intently into a stone crypt. Some animal. Wait.
There he goes.

PARAn obese grey rat toddled along the side of the crypt, moving the
pebbles. An old stager: greatgrandfather: he knows the ropes. The grey
alive crushed itself in under the plinth, wriggled itself in under it. Good
hidingplace for treasure.

PARWho lives there? Are laid the remains of Robert Emery. Robert
Emmet was buried here by torchlight, wasn't he? Making his rounds.

PARTail gone now.

980

PAROne of those chaps would make short work of a fellow. Pick the
bones clean no matter who it was. Ordinary meat for them. A corpse is
meat gone bad. Well and what's cheese? Corpse of milk. I read in that
Voyages in China that the Chinese say a white man smells like a corpse.
Cremation better. Priests dead against it. Devilling for the other firm
Wholesale burners and Dutch oven dealers. Time of the plague. Quicklime
feverpits to eat them. Lethal chamber. Ashes to ashes. Or bury at sea.
Where is that Parsee tower of silence? Eaten by birds. Earth, fire, water.
Drowning they say is the pleasantest. See your whole life in a flash. But
being brought back to life no. Can't bury in the air however. Out of a flying

990

machine. Wonder does the news go about whenever a fresh one is let down.
Underground communication. We learned that from them. Wouldn't be
surprised. Regular square feed for them. Flies come before he's well dead.
Got wind of Dignam. They wouldn't care about the smell of it. Saltwhite
crumbling mush of corpse: smell, taste like raw white turnips.

PARThe gates glimmered in front: still open. Back to the world again.
Enough of this place. Brings you a bit nearer every time. Last time I was
here was Mrs Sinico's funeral. Poor papa too. The love that kills. And even
scraping up the earth at night with a lantern like that case I read of to get at
fresh buried females or even putrefied with running gravesores. Give you

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the creeps after a bit. I will appear to you after death. You will see my ghost
after death. My ghost will haunt you after death. There is another world
after death named hell. I do not like that other world she wrote. No more
do I. Plenty to see and hear and feel yet. Feel live warm beings near you. Let
them sleep in their maggoty beds. They are not going to get me this innings.
Warm beds: warm fullblooded life.

PARMartin Cunningham emerged from a sidepath, talking gravely.

PARSolicitor, I think. I know his face. Menton, John Henry, solicitor,
commissioner for oaths and affidavits. Dignam used to be in his office. Mat
Dillon's long ago. Jolly Mat. Convivial evenings. Cold fowl, cigars, the

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Tantalus glasses. Heart of gold really. Yes, Menton. Got his rag out that
evening on the bowlinggreen because I sailed inside him. Pure fluke of
mine: the bias. Why he took such a rooted dislike to me. Hate at first sight.

Molly and Floey Dillon linked under the lilactree, laughing. Fellow always
like that, mortified if women are by.

PARGot a dinge in the side of his hat. Carriage probably.

PAR—Excuse me, sir, Mr Bloom said beside them.

PARThey stopped.

PAR—Your hat is a little crushed, Mr Bloom said pointing.

PARJohn Henry Menton stared at him for an instant without moving.

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PAR—There, Martin Cunningham helped, pointing also.

PARJohn Henry Menton took off his hat, bulged out the dinge and
smoothed the nap with care on his coatsleeve. He clapped the hat on his
head again.

PAR—It's all right now, Martin Cunningham said.

PARJohn Henry Menton jerked his head down in acknowledgment.

PAR—Thank you, he said shortly.

PARThey walked on towards the gates. Mr Bloom, chapfallen, drew
behind a few paces so as not to overhear. Martin laying down the law.
Martin could wind a sappyhead like that round his little finger, without his

1030

seeing it.

PAROyster eyes. Never mind. Be sorry after perhaps when it dawns on
him. Get the pull over him that way.

PARThank you. How grand we are this morning!