The main problem the Lilliputians face while attempting to move Gulliver from his place on the beach into their city is simply lifting and placing him into the vehicle with which they plan to move him. They already have impressive machinery to move large objects because they use these to build their nine-foot ships, Gulliver tells us, but actually lifting him into this machine poses a difficulty. Eventually, eighty poles are erected, to which pulleys are fastened, and some nine hundred of the strongest Lilliputian men are called to hoist Gulliver up by the cords they've tied around him using these pulleys. It is a process that takes almost three hours, as Gulliver finds out later because he sleeps through the whole production, his wine having been drugged.
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