or HAMAC, a kind of hanging bed, suspended between two trees, posts, hooks, or the like, much used throughout the West Indies, as also on board of ships. The Indians hang their hammocks to trees, and thus secure themselves from wild beasts and Hammock insects, which render lying on the ground there very dangerous. According to F. Plumer, who has often made use of the hammock in the Indies, it consists of a large strong coverlet or sheet of coarse cotton, about fix feet square: on two opposite sides are loops of the same stuff, through which a string is run, and thereof other loops are formed, all which are tied together with a cord; and thus is the whole fastened to two neighbouring trees in the field, or two hooks in houses. This kind of couch serves at the same time for bed quilts, sheets, pillow, &c.

The hammock used on board of ships is made of a piece of canvas fix feet long and three feet wide, gathered or drawn together at the two ends. There are usually from fourteen to twenty inches in breadth allowed between decks for every hammock in a ship of war; but this space must in some measure depend on the number of the crew, &c. In time of battle the hammocks and bedding are firmly corded and fixed in the nettings on the quarter-deck, or wherever the men are too much exposed to the view or fire of the enemy.