Not P but Moby-Dick (40)

[Ian Livingston]

editing here: It sounds like the beds he is describing here are wooden
platforms, rather than hammocks, and mats are both mattress and blanket.

On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 5:53 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> A mat of woven grasses, or, sometimes simply a couple of armloads of hay
> thrown into the hammock, which passed as a bed for many sailors. The
> hammocks are suspended in rows from timbers in the below decks. Woven grass
> is a pretty good insulator as a mattress.
>
> On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 2:40 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> All I can find is this. From a book on making paper:
>>
>> FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 156
>> ... grass mat and its wet sheet are then lifted off the frame with a
>> rolling movement and deposited on a board , once ... swinging the mould .
>> The laid cover is secured between two wooden frames , and when forming is
>> complete the two halves ...
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 5:24 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > From Chapter 54:
>> >
>> > “Lakeman!—Buffalo! Pray, what is a Lakeman, and where is Buffalo? ” said
>> > Don Sebastian, rising in his swinging mat of grass.
>> >
>> > What is this "swinging mat of grass" exactly? Is it a mat made of grass?
>> > Then how is it swinging?
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>