Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead,
bearing a bowl of
lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A
yellow dressinggown,
ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild
morning air. He
held the bowl aloft and intoned:
--_Introibo ad altare Dei_.
Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and
called out coarsely:
--Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!
Solemnly he came forward and mounted the round gunrest.
He faced about
and blessed gravely thrice the tower, the surrounding
land and the
awaking mountains. Then, catching sight of Stephen
Dedalus, he bent
towards him and made rapid crosses in the air, gurgling
in his throat
and shaking his head. Stephen Dedalus, displeased and
sleepy, leaned
his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly
at the shaking
gurgling face that blessed him, equine in its length,
and at the light
untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak.
Buck Mulligan peeped an instant under the mirror and
then covered the
bowl smartly.
