MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[3399] And with such zeal that I am far more he who finds than he who tells ^{[⁁]what he has found,},
now as then, most of the time, I do not exaggerate. [3400] And in the silence
of my room, and all over as far as I am concerned, I know scarcely any
better where I am going and what awaits me than the night I clung to the
wicket, beside my idiot of a son, the ⁱⁿ the lane. [3401] And it would not surprise
me if I deviated, in the pages to follow, from the true and exact success-
-ion of events.

[3402] But I do not think even Sisyphus is required to scratch
himself, or to groan, or to rejoice, as the fashion is now, always at the
same appointed places. [3403] And it may even be they are not too particular
about the route he takes provided it gets him to his destination safely
and on time. [3404] And perhaps he thinks each journey is the first. [3405] This would
keep hope alive, would it not, hellish hope. [3406] Whereas to see yourself doing
the same thing endlessly over and over again fills you with satisfaction.

[3407] By the Molloy country I mean that narrow region whose administrative
limits he had never crossed and presumably never would, either because he
was forbidden to, or because he had no wish to, or of course because of
some extraordinary fortuitous conjunction of circumstances. [3408] This region
was situated in the north, I mean compared ^{[⁁]in relation} to mine, less bleak, and
comprised a settlement, dignified by some with the name of market-town
by others regarded as no more than a village, and the surrounding country.

[3409] This market-town, or village, was I hasten to say called Bally, and
represented, with its dependent lands, a surface area of five or six
square miles at the most. [3410] In modern countries this is what I think is
called a commune, or a canton, I forget, but there exists with us no
abstract and generic term for such territorial subdivisions. [3411] And to
express them we have another system, of singular beauty and simplicity,
which consists in saying Bally (we are (since we are talking of Bally)
when you mean Bally and Ballyba when you mean Bally plus its domains