I downloaded this classic adventure tale from Project Gutenberg the other day - in the story I'm writing my characters are visiting the lost city of Kor, and I wanted to see how Rider Haggard had originally described it. This was great fun, discovering the ruined city inside the crater of a volcano, with lots of interesting caverns to discover as Ayesha led Leo down to the Flame of Immortality.
And then they came to an abyss, which was crossed by a narrow plank - and I stopped and thought "Where on Earth did the plank come from?"
I'm pretty sure the locals weren't building their homes with planks, though descriptions are somewhat sketchy as Rider Haggard's characters are not much interested in native huts. And it's a Lost City - they weren't trading with anyone anywhere else.
It's just one of those little world-building touches that I think Rider Haggard didn't even consider, so he just put in something familiar to his readers (and himself).
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