[8] The fan here referred to was chiefly used inside the Courts as punkah, to create a little circulation of the air, and to dissipate the horrible odours for which these places were notorious.
[9] This assertion that the handles of fans were occasionally employed in the castigation of refractory children is borne out by the droll story of Sir Thomas More punishing his daughters with a fan of peacock’s feathers for the offence of running him into debt with the milliner.
[10] Layard, Nineveh.
[11] Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.
[12] Thus Agamemnon in Troilus and Cressida, Act I. Scene iii.:
‘in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.’