It took months for me to identify the source of this miniature batik fan, when I located it 15 years ago. Batik fabrics are made in India, Indonesia and Bali. These fans typically would be closer to the size of a person's face (without the handle), though this one is only 6-7" long.

So you can imagine my excitement when I read Alka Joshi's passage recently:

"Back in India, JiJi and I used to cool ourselves with dampened fans made out of khus, the Hindu name for vetiver grass, during the sizzling heat of the Jaipuri summers. The society ladies...hired servants to continually sprinkle water on large khus over the doors and windows, which released vetiver's cool, woody fragrance into the rooms."

--Alka Joshi, The Perfumist of Paris.

It's enough to make me want to run down a bottle of vetiver oil!