Cunnythumb

In a blighted area at the top of South Cumberland Street, Bloom looks down at the evidence of an outdoor children's game and sees a child practicing another such game: "With careful tread he passed over a hopscotch court with its forgotten pickeystone. Not a sinner. Near the timberyard a squatted child at marbles, alone, shooting the taw with a cunnythumb." There is nothing exotic about these games, but the terms mentioned in Lotus Eaters require some explanation, and one or two details suggest that Bloom may be revisiting memories of childhood humiliations.

John Hunt 2021

A hopscotch player. Source: www.stphilipsjns.ie.

Some standard hopscotch courts at the turn of the last century, as illustrated in Daniel Carter Beard's The Outdoor Handy Book: For the Playground, Field, and Forest (1900). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The weak way of shooting. Source: www.americantoymarbles.com.

The stronger way. Source: www.americantoymarbles.com.