The air is perfumed with essences. The men cheer. Bloom’s boys run amid the bystanders with branches of hawthorn and wrenbushes.)

BLOOM’S BOYS:

The wren, the wren,

The king of all birds,

Saint Stephen’s his day

Was caught in the furze.

A BLACKSMITH: (Murmurs.) For the honour of God!

And is that Bloom? He scarcely looks thirtyone.

A PAVIOR AND FLAGGER: That’s the famous Bloom now, the world’s greatest reformer. Hats off!

(All uncover their heads. Women whisper eagerly.)