Let me regress here a bit to the top of the thread:

"Palliasse - A thin mattress filled with straw or sawdust, f. F paillasse, f. It. pagliaccio, f. Rom. paleaceum, f .L palea, straw, chaff."

Thin mattress...straw...hmmmm. In the South, it was not uncommon for children to sleep on pallets. There must be a connection here to palliasse. Sometimes in families on tight budgets, only the parents could afford a bed, and the children would sleep on pallets. I saw a model of Jesse Owens' childhood cabin: eleven children in his family all slept in one small room on pallets though his parents had a bed in a separate room.