WALKING-STICKS

are of very ancient use, even as ornaments, and obviously must have been used as a help to walking for ages previous to their use for ornament. The pastoral staff, the monarch's sceptre, the magician's wand, and the constable’s baton are all evolutions of the Walking-Stick. Those used by pilgrims in the Middle Ages were generally hollow, and relics and other valuables—especially seeds, the eggs of silkworms, and other things, the export of which etc.—were was forbidden by the Chinese, Turks, Greeks, thus safely carried. Doctors of later times frequently carried snuff or other supposed disinfectants in similar hollow walking-sticks, and le useful personages carried swords, etc.