Ulysses Essay 19 (37:11)
Chapter 3 (Proteus) Note 5
“Fat with the fat of kidneys of wheat”

Stephen continues his mocking description of the overfed “jack-priests” who are “fat with the fat of kidneys of wheat.” The reference is to a verse in Deuteronomy (32:14), part of Moses’s poetic final message to his flock. The prophet foresees Israel living in wealth and luxury in the Promised Land, but then instead of showing gratitude to God who was responsible for their prosperity, he prophesies that they would adopt the gods of the surrounding nations. The text reads:

“He made him [Israel] ride on the high places, so that he could eat the fruit of the fields. He let him suck honey out of the crags, and oil out of the flinty rock.
He [fed him] butter from the cattle and milk from the sheep; fat of lambs
And rams from Bashan and goats, with kidney-fat of wheat.
And from blood-red grapes you would drink the finest wine.
But Yeshurun waxed fat and kicked;
You grew fat and thick and engorged.
He abandoned the God who made him,
And scorned the rock of his salvation” (Deut. 32:13-15).

The question is – what is the “kidney-fat” of wheat? Here is a diagram of a wheat kernel, and I guess it’s not too far a stretch of the imagination to see that the endosperm (the nutritional part of the kernel – blue in the diagram, and also incorporating the green germ) is sort of kidney-shaped. Obviously it’s not composed of “fat” but mainly starch, as well as some protein.


Wheat kernel diagram

However, the most trenchant line in the poem is “You grew fat and thick and engorged.” To really appreciate the force of this expression one has to articulate the three words of the Hebrew original, which are “Shamanta, avita, casita” with the stress on the penultimate syllable of each word (a seeming predecessor of Caesar’s “veni, vidi, vici”). It also explains why Moses took poetic license and changed from the third to the second person to enhance the effect. (In the third person it would have been “Shaman, avah, casah” – nowhere near as forceful).









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