"The path wandered ... drifting back and forth over the riverbed, passing among granite boulders fleeced with green and grey moss that was as soft to the touch as jewellery-box velvet.
'The monks of the nearby monasteries would gather pillows of this moss,' said Miguel, pressing it with his fingertips, 'and sleep with their heads on them. The moss drew away bad thoughts from the mind, and soaked up dark dreams.' I liked the sound of that: moss as nightmare proofing-absorbent, a dabbing cloth for ill feelings."
Another passage, another lovely image from Robert Macfarlane's The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
The use of moss he describes is a new one to me, but I was aware of the fact that it was an effective dressing for wounds, and in Iby's memoir she describes - as a primary school pupil during the 1914-18 war - gathering the moss as part of the war effort:
" ... many a bag carefully cleaned of twigs, heather or minute pebbles was sent from our school to a central point for distribution to hospitals near the front. How proud we were then when our teacher read out letters of thanks from those in authority there!"
There is more on the medicinal uses of moss here.
