Ulysses Essay 6 (13:16): 

Chapter 1 (Telemachus) No. 6

 “The collector of prepuces”

Stephen, Mulligan and Haines, are about to sit down to a breakfast of fried eggs made by Mulligan who is bemoaning the fact that there is no milk for their tea. Stephen, the eternal compromiser, says that they can “drink it black” as “there’s a lemon in the locker”. At this very moment Haines, at the doorway, tells them that he has seen “that woman coming up with milk.”

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In one of his most endearing character studies, Joyce draws the rural milk-woman in Stephen’s thoughts as sincerely religious and patriotic. Joyce also describes her as practical, generous and decent: she adds a “tilly” – a little extra – to the quart of the milk on order, and allows them twopence credit when Mulligan unwillingly manages to haul out a florin in part payment. Her actions and words are in sharp juxtaposition to the elitist and condescending pseudo-academism (and miserliness) of the three men, especially Mulligan. The contrast is brought out by the following exchange as the milk-woman stands at Stephen’s elbow, after Stephen has been requested by Mulligan to “get the milkjug:”

“That’s a lovely morning, sir,” she said. “Glory be to God.”

“To whom?” Mulligan said, glancing at her. “Ah, to be sure.”

Stephen reached back and took the milkjug from the locker.

“The islanders,” Mulligan said to Haines casually, “Speak frequently of the collector of prepuces.”

Mulligan uses this cynical aside to the Englishman Haines (who is studying Gaelic folk culture) to characterize the absolute unquestioning religiosity of the Irish country people. Mulligan’s designation of God as “the collector of prepuces” has unmistakably anti-Jewish overtones, and also perhaps anticipates the revelation in the “Nausicaa” episode that Bloom, Jewish by birth but baptized as a Catholic, is uncircumcised. Moreover, Mulligan not only defines the biblical deity in terms of the circumcision rite imposed on Abraham and his offspring by God (according to Genesis 17:10-14), but his remark can also be understood as an attempt to present himself to Haines as an effete and sophisticated Irishman who, free of the chains of tribal religiosity, can superciliously mock ancient and uncivilized biblical practices. Mulligan is almost certainly referring to the story in Samuel I (18:25-27) in which King Saul entices the young and popular upstart David, an obvious contender for the throne and adored by Michal, the king’s daughter, to perform an almost impossible military mission (while secretly hoping that David would be killed in combat): David is required to bring home from the battle the foreskins of one hundred Philistines as a dowry for obtaining Michal’s hand in marriage. David, a master military tactician (as evidenced by his famous encounter with Goliath) meets the challenge twice over, bringing to Saul no less than two hundred Philistine foreskins, and is rewarded by being permitted to take Michal to wife, albeit to Saul’s unconcealed displeasure. Not long after their marriage Michal will save David from her father’s hand by letting him escape on a rope through their bedroom window when Saul’s agents come to their home to arrest him. Michal misleads the agents in their search for David by filling the marital bed with a life-size “teraphim” (probably a body form idolatrous sculpture) crowned with a head of red goat fleece to simulate David’s red hair, thus bolstering her pretense that her husband is sick, while actually he has escaped unharmed.

Male circumcision is still almost universally practiced among contemporary Jews and Moslems, and is also popular among many people who are neither Jewish nor Moslem, although opinions to the contrary are being heard more and more frequently, especially since Dr William Morgan, a lung specialist at the University of Maryland, published his groundbreaking article “The Rape of the Phallus” in July 1965 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 193, p. 123). The arguments against circumcision include its minor but definite surgical risks, the perception that is it is nothing more than a tribal ritual mutilation of the newborn infant who has no say in the matter, and that sexual intercourse is said to be more pleasurable for the uncircumcised male (although this assertion appears to be conjectural at best) . Medical factors that favor circumcision include a definite decrease in the rate of penile cancer (an admittedly rare disease), and also of cancer of the cervix of a long-term female partner of a circumcised male. More significantly, three recent randomized controlled trials have provided definite evidence that unprotected sex with circumcised male HIV carriers increases the incidence of sexual transmission of AIDS to the female partner by some sixty percent: this impressive finding has led the World Health Organization to lead campaigns in Africa encouraging parents to circumcise their newborn infants.

Jews call the circumcision ritual a “Brit” (or in the European Ashkenazi pronunciation a “Bris”) which is Hebrew for “covenant”, and is short for the full name of the rite “Brit Milah” (“covenant of circumcision”) referring to the instruction of God to Abraham (Genesis 17:10-14) that he circumcise himself and his sons, and also obligating his future male descendants to be circumcised on the eighth day of life as a sign of the special covenant between God and the Jewish people. The eighth day specification is abrogated and the ritual postponed if the newborn is underweight or ill, and especially if he is jaundiced, since certain types of neonatal jaundice are associated with a blood clotting deficiency, and consequently can lead to disastrous hemorrhage. As far back as 500 C.E. the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 134a), instructed that a baby who is yellow should not undergo circumcision until his yellowness has receded. On the other hand, if a baby is healthy the eighth day proviso is considered so important that even if the appointed day for a Brit falls on Yom Kippur the ceremony is observed during a break in the synagogue services, despite the fact that the day is one of fasting and contrition, the festive meal being postponed till after the breaking of the fast at sunset.

And back to Bloom. According to Luke (2:21) the infant Jesus was circumcised on January 1 when he was eight days old and therefore New Year’s Day is regarded as a religious holiday by many Christian denominations (“The Feast of Christ’s Circumcision”). So it is not without basis that in the “Cyclops” episode, Bloom, losing his usual good temper in Barney Kiernan’s pub after being hounded by the un-named hyper-patriotic and anti-Semitic “citizen”, retorts, “Your God was a jew. Christ was a jew like me.” The citizen, incensed at this travesty of religious sanctity, threatens to crucify Bloom (Joyce’s irony is wonderful), and throws a biscuit tin at him. Bloom barely manages to escape the pub unscathed.