"Hops of Fun at Miliken's Make"

(174.5-176.18)  The description of Shem picks up today with the fact that he disliked straightforward and fair arguments.  Any time he was called upon to settle an argument, he would rub shoulders and shake hands with whomever had last spoken, then proceed to agree with every word the next person uttered.  After that person had spoken, he would give the same encouraging treatment to the next speaker, and ask him (the speaker) how he (Shem) might be able to please him and whether he needs another drink.

The narrator next tells of a night "as very recently as some thousand rains ago" when Shem when out drinking with two groups of revelers, or "rival teams of slowspiers counter quicklimers."  This night resembled a soccer ("soggert") or rugby ("ruggering") match, with Shem as the ball that was left drunkenly abandoned after everyone else had their evening's fill.  Once again, the narrator says, there was hope that people "might pity and forgive him, if properly deloused," but there was no such luck for Shem:  "but the pleb was born a Quicklow and sank alowing till he sank out of sight."  

The end of the match (in which Shem is the actual loser) is proclaimed:  "All Saints beat Belial!  Mickil Goals to Nichil!  Notpossible!  Already?"  To commemorate the match, we get a brief song, which looks to be called "The Ballat of Perce-Oreille," obviously recalling "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly."  The lyrics to this ballad are relatively straightforward and detail the history of man, from the Garden of Eden, through the falls of Satan and Man (and Humpty Dumpty), up to the life of HCE, ALP, Shem, Shaun, Isabel, the 28 girls, the 4 old men, and the 12 men at the wake.  Take for example, this line dealing with HCE (as mountain), ALP (as river), and Shem and Shaun (as sons):  "But the Mountstill frowns on the Millstream while their Madsons leap his Bier."

Today's reading ends with the narrator recounting how Shem was never included in the children's games.  This leads into another detailed, albeit brief, catalog, this time listing a number of games.  McHugh notes that most of the games are listed in Norman Douglas's London Street Games.  While some of these seem to have no connection to the Wake, I'd be willing to wager that we'd find they reference something in particular by the end of the book.  Take, for example, "Battle of Waterloo," which references the battle between Wellington and Napoleon that has featured so prominently up to this point, or "What's the Time," which references HCE's encounter with the Cad and the time-space debate from chapter six.  Others are purely Wakeian, such as "Hops of Fun at Miliken's Make," which echoes the song "Finnegan's Wake," and "Henressy Crump Expolled," which reference's HCE's downfall (and, as McHugh notes, Henry Crump, the fourteenth century Irish theologian who was convicted of heresy).  These are pretty high-level children's games.