eider down

plural eider downs

1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative spelling of eiderdown.

   1 more example

   Norway is the land where extremes meet; where you can simultaneously see day-light, dying and returning to life; where dwarfs are as numerous as giants, and the lepers as healthy individuals. There are no stalls in this Norwegian Sheltery, but a number of tiny Scandinavian chalets. Reading the explanatory cards, an Anglo-Saxon will at perceive the first cousinship between the English and Norwegian languages. Beer is apparently much brewed; there are maps indicating the manners and customs of microbes in food preparations: there are specimens of beer in the different stages of fermentation; the spectacle is enough to drive the most thirsty soul into blue-ribbonism. It would seem, that they are microbes, and not brewers, that make beer. The collection of skulls and tusks of seals and whales is very complete; there are "salted" seal skins—perhaps the better to "preserve" against cold. There is a specimen of tanned codskin, that the English and American governments ought to secure, to bind the Fishery Treaty—when signed. There are bears' skins as white as the crest of Mt. Blanc, and eider down, fit only for bedding for cherubim and seraphim.

   1889 August 17, “Foreign Contribution. Paris Letter. Paris, 29th June, 1888”, in The Chinese Times, volume III, number 146, Tianjin, page 525