Note 40 — Chapter III
Reading edition
The traditional account is here given—some explanation of the absence of definite dates may be found in the hypothesis that there were always folding-fans—that the device of pleating a piece of paper or other material is so simple that it might occur to the youngest child. As a matter of fact, Nature herself invented the folded fan, as she may be said to suggest every invention. The palmetto leaf in its undeveloped shape is pleated and packed as neatly and completely as any folding-fan ever made.