The big bamboo-stick rested there.

A handle was attached to it, made of light-coloured horn, and on that handle there were some stains.

Ovid looked at them with a surgeon's practised eye.

They were dry stains of blood.

(Had he washed his hands on the last occasion when he used his stick?
And had he forgotten that the handle wanted washing too ?) Benjulia finished his letter, and wrote the address.