him the news out of the paper they got every day up in the castle. There was every kind of news in the paper: accidents, shipwrecks, sports, and politics.
-- Now it is all about politics in the papers, he said. Do your people talk about that too?
-- Yes, Stephen said.
-- Mine too, he said.
Then he thought for a moment and said:
-- You have a queer name, Dedalus, and I have a queer name too, Athy. My name is the name of a town. Your name is like Latin.
Then he asked:
-- Are you good at riddles?
Stephen answered:
-- Not very good.
Then he said:
-- Can you answer me this one? Why is the county of Kildare like the leg of a fellow's breeches?
Stephen thought what could be the answer and then said:
-- I give it up.
-- Because there is a thigh in it, he said. Do you see the joke? Athy is the town in the county Kildare and a thigh is the other thigh.
-- Oh, I see, Stephen said.
-- That's an old riddle, he said.
After a moment he said:
-- I say!
-- What? asked Stephen.
-- You know, he said, you can ask that riddle another way.
-- Can you? said Stephen.
-- The same riddle, he said. Do you know the other way to ask it?
-- No, said Stephen.
-- Can you not think of the other way? he said.
He looked at Stephen over the bedclothes as he spoke. Then he lay back on the pillow and said:
-- There is another way but I won't tell you what it is.