{"id":"01KG8AKWJDDTABRJ1A7HB5K1TY","cid":"bafkreih3iovztzmywlkppx2k4ayvd2ona2aznpisafcu42qcyugkwlyoha","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3621,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":3552,"text":"salts_ (Glauber salts); for like many other seamen, he never went to\r\nsea without a good supply of that luxury. He would frequently, also,\r\ntake this medicine in a wet jacket, and then go on deck into a rain\r\nstorm. But this is nothing to other sailors, who at sea will doctor\r\nthemselves with calomel off Cape Horn, and still remain on duty. And in\r\nthis connection, some really frightful stories might be told; but I\r\nforbear.\r\n\r\nFor a landsman to take salts as this Blunt did, it would perhaps be the\r\ndeath of him; but at sea the salt air and the salt water prevent you\r\nfrom catching cold so readily as on land; and for my own part, on board\r\nthis very ship, being so illy-provided with clothes, I frequently\r\nturned into my bunk soaking wet, and turned out again piping hot, and\r\nsmoking like a roasted sirloin; and yet was never the worse for it; for\r\nthen, I bore a charmed life of youth and health, and was dagger-proof\r\nto bodily ill.\r\n\r\nBut it is time to tell of the Dream Book. Snugly hidden in one corner\r\nof his chest, Blunt had an extraordinary looking pamphlet, with a red\r\ncover, marked all over with astrological signs and ciphers, and\r\npurporting to be a full and complete treatise on the art of Divination;\r\nso that the most simple sailor could teach it to himself.\r\n\r\nIt also purported to be the selfsame system, by aid of which Napoleon\r\nBonaparte had risen in the world from being a corporal to an emperor.\r\nHence it was entitled the _Bonaparte Dream Book;_ for the magic of it\r\nlay in the interpretation of dreams, and their application to the\r\nforeseeing of future events; so that all preparatory measures might be\r\ntaken beforehand; which would be exceedingly convenient, and\r\nsatisfactory every way, if true. The problems were to be cast by means\r\nof figures, in some perplexed and difficult way, which, however, was\r\nfacilitated by a set of tables in the end of the pamphlet, something\r\nlike the Logarithm Tables at the end of Bowditch’s Navigator.\r\n\r\nNow, Blunt revered, adored, and worshiped this _Bonaparte Dream Book_\r\nof his; and was fully persuaded that between those red covers, and in\r\nhis own dreams, lay all the secrets of futurity. Every morning before\r\ntaking his pills, and applying his hair-oils, he would steal out of his\r\nbunk before the rest of the watch were awake; take out his pamphlet,\r\nand a bit of chalk; and then straddling his chest, begin scratching his\r\noily head to remember his fugitive dreams; marking down strokes on his\r\nchest-lid, as if he were casting up his daily accounts.\r\n\r\nThough often perplexed and lost in mazes concerning the cabalistic\r\nfigures in the book, and the chapter of directions to beginners; for he\r\ncould with difficulty read at all; yet, in the end, if not interrupted,\r\nhe somehow managed to arrive at a conclusion satisfactory to him. So\r\nthat, as he generally wore a good-humored expression, no doubt he must\r\nhave thought, that all his future affairs were working together for the\r\nbest.\r\n\r\nBut one night he started us all up in a fright, by springing from his\r\nbunk, his eyes ready to start out of his head, and crying, in a husky\r\nvoice—“Boys! boys! get the benches ready! Quick, quick!”\r\n\r\n“What benches?” growled Max—“What’s the matter?”\r\n\r\n“Benches! benches!” screamed Blunt, without heeding him, “cut down the\r\nforests, bear a hand, boys; the Day of Judgment’s coming!”\r\n\r\nBut the next moment, he got quietly into his bunk, and laid still,\r\nmuttering to himself, he had only been rambling in his sleep.\r\n\r\nI did not know exactly what he had meant by his _benches;_ till,\r\nshortly after, I overheard two of the sailors debating, whether mankind\r\nwould stand or sit at the Last Day.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ1DADRPA06G38V29X3T","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWJA8KJPFW6NT9XP7PFB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.021Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.583Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}