MAIRE Theodolite.3 BRIDGET Ho w do you know? MAIRE They leave it in our byre4 at night sometimes if it's raining. JIMMY Theodolite?what's the etymology of that word, Manus? MANUS No idea. BRIDGET Get on with the story. JIMMY Theo?theos5?something to do with a god. Maybe thea?a goddess!
Wha t shape's the yoke?
DOALTY 'Shape!' Will you shut up, you aul eejit6 you! Anyway, every time they'd stick one of these poles into the ground and move across the bog, I'd creep up and shift it twenty or thirty paces to the side.
BRIDGET God!
DOALTY Then they'd come back and stare at it and look at their calculations and stare at it again and scratch their heads. And Cripes7, d'you know what they ended up doing?
BRIDGET Wait till you hear!
DOALTY They took the bloody machine apart! [And immediately he speaks in gibberish?an imitation of two very agitated and confused sappers in rapid conversation. ]
BRIDGET That's the image of them! MAIRE You must be proud of yourself, Doalty. DOALTY What d'you mean? MAIRE That was a very clever piece of work. MANUS It was a gesture. MAIRE Wha t sort of a gesture? MANUS Just to indicate .. . a presence. MAIRE Hah! BRIDGET I'm telling you?you'll be arrested.
[When DOALTY is embarrassed?or pleased?he reacts physically. He now grabs BRIDGET around the waist.] DOALTY Wha t d'you make of that for an implement, Bridget? Wouldn't that make a great aul shaft for your churn? BRIDGET Let go of me, you dirty brute! I've a headline to do before Big Hughie comes. MANUS I don't think we'll wait for him. Let's get started.
[Slowly, rehictantly they begin to move to their seats and specific tasks. DOALTY goes to the bucket of water at the door and washes his hands. BRIDGET sets up a hand-mirror and combs her hair.]
BRIDGET Nellie Ruadh's baby was to be christened this morning. Did any of yous hear what she called it? Di d you, Sarah?
[SARAH grunts: No.] BRIDGET Did you, Maire? MAIRE NO. BRIDGET Our Seamus says she was threatening she was going to call it after
its father.
3. A portable instrument for surveying. 6. Idiot. 4. Barn. 7. Christ (mild oath). 5. God (Greek).
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248 4 / NATION AND LANGUAGE
DOALTY Who's the father? BRIDGET That's the point, you donkey you! DOALTY Ah. BRIDGET So there's a lot of uneasy bucks about Baile Beag this day. DOALTY She told me last Sunday she was going to call it Jimmy. BRIDGET You're a liar, Doalty. DOALTY Woul d I tell you a lie? Hi, Jimmy, Nellie Ruadh's aul fella's looking
for you. JIMMY For me? MAIRE Com e on, Doalty. DOALTY Someone told him . . . MAIRE Doalty! DOALTY He heard you know the first book of the Satires of Horace8 off by
heart. . . JIMMY That's true. DOALTY . . . and he wants you to recite it for him. JIMMY I'll do that for him certainly, certainly. DOALTY He's busting to hear it.
[JIMMY fumbles in his -pockets.] JIMMY I came across this last night?this'll interest you?in Book Two of
Virgil's Georgics.9 DOALTY Be God, that's my territory alright. BRIDGET You clown you! [To SARAH.] Hold this for me, would you? [Her
mirror.] JIMMY Listen to this, Manus. 'Nigra fere et presso pinguis sub vomere terra . . . ' DOALTY Steady on now?easy, boys, easy?don't rush me, boys?[H e mimes great concentration.]
JIMMY Manus?
MANUS 'Land that is black and rich beneath the pressure of the
plough . . .' DOALTY Give me a chance! JIMMY 'And with cui putre?with crumbly soil?is in the main best for corn.'
There you are! DOALTY There you are. JIMMY 'From no other land will you see more wagons wending homeward
behind slow bullocks.'1 Virgil! There! DOALTY 'Slow bullocks'! JIMMY Isn't that what I'm always telling you? Black soil for corn. That's what
you should have in that upper field of yours?corn, not spuds.
DOALTY Would you listen to that fella! Too lazy be Jasus to wash himself and
he's lecturing me on agriculture! Woul d you go and take a running race at
yourself, Jimm y Jack Cassie! [Grabs SARAH.] Come away out of this with me,
Sarah, and we'll plant some corn together.
MANUS Alright?alright. Let's settle down and get some work done. I know
Sean Beag isn't coming?he's at the2 salmon. What about the Donnelly
twins? [To DOALTY.] Are the Donnelly twins not coming any more?
8. Latin lyric poet (65?8 B.C.E.). 1. Bulls or, loosely, cattle. 9. Four books of poems on farming and rural life 2. Fishing for. by the Roman poet (70?19 B.C.E.).
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