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.)