âIf we could only live on good food like that, he said to her somewhat loudly, we wouldnât have the country full of rotten teeth and rotten guts. Living in a bogswamp, eating cheap food and the streets paved with dust, horsedung and consumptivesâ spits.
âAre you a medical student, sir? the old woman asked.
âI am, maâam, Buck Mulligan answered.
Stephen listened in scornful silence. She bows her old head to a voice that speaks to her loudly, her bonesetter, her medicineman: me she slights. To the voice that will shrive and oil for the grave all there is of her but her womanâs unclean loins, of manâs flesh made not in Godâs likeness, the serpentâs prey. And to the loud voice that now bids her be silent with wondering unsteady eyes.
âDo you understand what he says? Stephen asked her.
âIs it French you are talking, sir? the old woman said to Haines.