Walking stick stick. In addition to its value as a decorative accessory, it also continued to fulfil some of the function of the sword as a weapon. The standard cane was rattan with a rounded metal grip. The clouded cane was made of malacca (rattan stems) and showed the patina of age: Some canes had specially weighted metalwork. Other types of wood, such as hickory, are equally suitable. Various staffs of office derived from walking sticks or staffs are used by both western and eastern Christian churches. In Islam the walking stick ('Asa) is considered a Sunnah and Muslims are encouraged to
Stick-fighting The French system of "la canne" is still practiced as a competitive sport. A self-defense adaptation of "la canne" developed by Swiss master-at-arms Pierre Vigny in the early 1900s has been revived as part of the curriculum of bartitsu. Nivkh people from Sakhalin used long sticks called "z'ar t'ar" for sacralized ritual fighting. In the US during the early years of the 1900s, fencer and self-defense specialist A. C. Cunningham developed a unique system of stick-fighting using a walking stick or umbrella, which he recorded in his book "The Cane as a Weapon". Singlestick was developed as a method of