It was, probably, to the turner’s art that the Greeks owed many of those straight and elegant kinds of walkingsticks,[1091] particularly affected by the opulent, and called Persian, doubtless because the use of them came originally from Asia. Others preferred the Laconian scytale,[1092] fashioned usually from a piece of whitethorn, and philosophers, sticks of olive-wood.[1093] Rustics then, as now, were in the habit of carrying twisted and uncouth walkingstaves, bent sometimes atop, and of heavy materials. The straight light stem of the malachè,[1094] and birch, and elder,[1095] were likewise in use; while some carried sticks made from the agnus castus or the laurel, which were believed to possess the virtue of preserving those who bore them from accident or injury.[1096] The making of umbrellas or parasols, which opened and closed like our own,[1097] no doubt constituted a separate branch of industry. These articles, it may be observed, were manufactured with great elegance, with handles gracefully ornamented, and furnished at the periphery[1098] with numerous elongated drops. It was, probably, the same tradesmen in whose shops were found those folding-seats, or camp-stools, invented by Dædalos, the use of which seems to have been very common at Athens.[1099] ----- Footnote 1091: Gitone, Il Costume, pl. 20. Footnote 1092: Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. 170, seq. Suid. v. σκύταλον, t. ii. p. 768. b. Poll. iv. 170. v. 18. x. 113. Footnote 1093: Luc. Dial. Meret. xi. § 3. The Celastron, an evergreen, and the Mya, were also used for walkingsticks. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 7. Footnote 1094: Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 2, seq. Footnote 1095: Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 13. 4. 14. 4. Old men sometimes flourished a pair. Sch. Aristoph. Plut. 272. Generally, however, they were content, even in winter, with one, and were, therefore, compared by the poets to three-legged stools. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 533. Æschyl. Agam. 80. Eurip. Troad. 275. For the thick, heavy staff affected by old men see in Zoëga (Bassi Rilievi, tav. 40) a basso rilievo representing the Death of Meleager. Footnote 1096: Dioscor. i. 135. Footnote 1097: To this fact Aristophanes jocularly alludes, where he describes the ears of the Demos as opening and closing under the influence of eloquence. Equit. 1344, seq. Τὰ δ᾽ ὦτα γάρ σου, νὴ Δί᾽, ἐξεπετάννυται, Ὥσπερ σκιάδιον, καὶ πάλιν ξυνήγεται. On this passage the Scholiast observes: σκέπασμά τι, ὅπερ αἱ γυναῖκες παρὰ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ἔχουσι θέουσαι ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ καίεσθαι τὰς ὄψεις ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου. ἐκτείνεται δὲ καὶ συστέλλεται πρὸς τὸν κατεπείγοντα καιρόν. Footnote 1098: Hope, Costumes of the Ancients.—Gitone, Il Cost. Ant. e Mod. pl. 17. pl. 67. Footnote 1099: Aristoph. Eq. 1384. cum Schol. -----