The "stole," a decorated strip of material several inches wide and seven to nine feet long, is a distinctive badge of the priest's office. Donning holy vestments before a ceremony, a priest kisses the middle of the stole and then puts it around the back of his neck, with the two ends hanging down his chest.

Although Mulligan's ungirdled dressing gown does not cooperate in his apings of priestly actions, the narrative does assist him when he heads down to the swimming hole: "Buck Mulligan slung his towel stolewise round his neck." Hades affords a glimpse of the real thing as the "whitesmocked priest" enters the funeral chapel after the server, "tidying his stole with one hand."

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