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Despite reading the entire series twice, I never understood the porcupine line. Can someone ELI5?

It’s Jack talking through his hat again. I think he’s trying to determine if a woman is married or not and when it turns out they having a roving eye, he conflates “porcupine” (no idea what a porcupine-lay might be) with “concubine”.

I think "lay" might be as literal as we would use it now.

It's probably slang for "line of work: occupation":

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lay

See 3b under its noun definition.

So: “Why, sir, in a manner of speaking: but some might say more on the porcupine-lay, the roving-line, if you understand me.”

Translates to: “Why, sir, in a manner of speaking: but some might say more on the concubine-occupation, the roving-line [of work], if you understand me.”

Then Jack, not wanting to embarrass Heaven for his malapropism, intentionaly reuses "porcupine" incorrectly.

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