that belonged to Michael. MAURYA stands up slowly and takes them in her hands. NORA looks out.)
NORA. Theyâre carrying a thing among them and thereâs water dripping out of it and leaving a track by the big stones.
CATHLEEN (in a whisper to the women who have come in). Is it Bartley it is?
ONE OF THE WOMEN. It is surely, God rest his soul.
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(Two younger women come in and pull out the table. Then men carry in the body of BARTLEY, laid on a plank, with a bit of a sail over it, and lay it on the table.)
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CATHLEEN (to the women, as they are doing so). What way was he drowned?
ONE OF THE WOMEN. The gray pony knocked him into the sea, and he was washed out where there is a great surf on the white rocks.
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(MAURYA has gone over and knelt down at the head of the table. The women are keening softly and swaying themselves with a slow movement. CATHLEEN and NORA kneel at the other end of the table. The men kneel near the door.)
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MAURYA (raising her head and speaking as if she did not see the people around her). Theyâre all gone now, and there isnât anything more the sea can do to me.... Iâll have no call now to be up crying and praying when the wind breaks from the south, and you can hear the surf is in the east, and the surf is in the west, making a great stir with the two noises, and they hitting one on the other. Iâll have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in the dark nights after Samhain, and I wonât care what way the sea is when the other women will be keening. (To NORA) Give me the Holy Water, Nora, thereâs a small sup still on the dresser.
(NORA gives it to her.)
MAURYA (drops Michaelâs clothes across BARTLEYâ s feet , and sprinkles the Holy Water over him). It isnât that I havenât prayed for you, Bartley, to the Almighty God. It isnât that I havenât said prayers in the dark night till you wouldnât know what Iâd be saying; but itâs a great rest Iâll have now, and itâs time surely. Itâs a great rest Iâll have now, and great sleeping in the long nights after Samhain, if itâs only a bit of wet flour we do have to eat, and maybe a fish that would be stinking. (She kneels down again, crossing herself, and saying prayers under her breath.)
CATHLEEN (to an old man). Maybe yourself and Eamon would make a coffin when the run rises. We have fine white boards herself bought, God help her, thinking Michael would be found, and I have a new cake you can eat while youâll be working.
THE OLD MAN (looking at the boards). Are there nails with them?
CATHLEEN. There are not, Colum; we didnât think of the nails.
ANOTHER MAN. Itâs a great wonder she wouldnât think of the nails, and all the coffins sheâs seen made already.
CATHLEEN. Itâs getting old she is, and broken.
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(MAURYA stands up again very slowly and spreads out the pieces of Michaelâs clothes beside the body, sprinkling them with the last of the Holy Water.)
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NORA (in a whisper to CATHLEEN). Sheâs quiet now and easy; but the day Michael was drowned you could hear her crying out from this to the spring well. Itâs fonder she was of Michael, and would any one have thought that?
CATHLEEN (slowly and clearly). An old woman will be soon tired with anything she will do, and isnât it nine days herself is after crying and keening, and making great sorrow in the house?
MAURYA (puts the empty cup mouth downwards on the table, and lays her hands together on BARTLEYâ S feet). Theyâre all together this time, and the end is come. May the Almighty God have mercy on Bartleyâs soul, and on Michaelâs soul, and on the souls of Sheamus and Patch, and Stephen and Shawn (bending her head); and may He have mercy on my soul, Nora, and on the soul of every one is left living in the world.
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(She pauses, and the keen rises a little more loudly from the women, then