Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WALE'-KNOT, or WALL-KNOT, n.

A single wale-knot is mule by untwisting the ends of a rope, and nicking a bight with the first strand; then passing the second over the end of the first, and the third over the end of the second, and through the bight of the first. The double is made by passing the ends, singly, close underneath the first wale, and thrusting them upward through the middle, only the last end comes up under two bights. – Cyc.