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PLAYING CARDS.
[Illustration: Lancelot]
FACTS AND SPECULATIONS
ON THE
ORIGIN AND HISTORY
OF
PLAYING CARDS.
BY
WILLIAM ANDREW CHATTO.
Hæc mihi charta nuces, hæc est mihi charta fritillus.--MARTIAL.
With Cards I while my leisure hours away,
And cheat old Time; yet neither bet nor play.
LONDON:
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE.
MDCCCXLVIII.
PRINTED BY C. AND J. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.
PREFACE.
Should a person who has never bestowed a thought on the subject ask,
"What can there be that is interesting in the History of Cards?" it is
answered, "There may be much." There is an interest, of a certain kind,
even in the solution of a riddle, or the explication of a conundrum;
and certain learned men, such as Père Daniel, and Court de Gebelin,
having assumed that the game of Cards was originally instructive, and
that the figures and marks of the suits are emblematic, speaking to
the intelligent of matters of great import, their amusingly absurd
speculations on the subject--set forth with all the gravity of a "budge
doctor" determining _ex cathedra_--impart to the History of Cards an
interest which, intrinsically, it does not possess. But putting aside
all that may relate to their covert meaning, cards, considered with
respect to what they simply are--the instruments of a popular game, and
the productions of art--suggest several questions, the investigation
of which is not without interest: Where and when were they invented,
and what is the origin of their names? When were they introduced into
Europe? What has been their progress as a popular game; and what
influence have they had on society? What changes have they undergone
with respect to the figures and the marks of the suits; and to what
purposes have picture and fancy cards been made subservient, in
consequence of those in common use being so generally understood? And
lastly, what have been the opinions of moralists and theologians with
respect to the lawfulness of the game?--Such are the topics discussed,
and questions examined, in the following pages.
Of the works of previous writers on the origin of Cards I have freely
availed myself; using them as guides when I thought them right,
pointing out their errors when I thought them wrong, and allowing
them to speak for themselves whenever they seemed instructive or
amusing. Having no wish to appropriate what was not my own, I have
quoted my authorities with scrupulous fidelity; and am not conscious
of an obligation which I have not acknowledged. Should the reader not
obtain from this work all the information on Cards which he might have
expected, it is hoped that he will at least acquire from its perusal a
knowledge of the true value of such investigations. Between being well
informed on a subject, and knowing the real worth of such information,
there is a distinction which is often overlooked, especially by
antiquaries.
In the Illustrations will be found a greater variety of Cards than
have hitherto been given in any other work on the same subject, not
excepting the splendid publication of the Society of Bibliophiles
Français, entitled 'Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numérales du
Quatorzième au Dix-huitième Siècle.' All the cards--with the exception
of the French Valets, at p. 250, and the Portuguese Chevaliers,
at p. 252,--have been copied by Mr. F. W. Fairholt; and all the
wood-engravings--with the exception of the tail-piece, by W. J. Linton,
at p. 330,--have been executed by Mr. George Vasey.
W. A. C.
LONDON;
_17th April, 1848_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
OF THE ORIGIN AND NAME OF CARDS 1
CHAPTER II.
INTRODUCTION OF CARDS INTO EUROPE 60
CHAPTER III.
PROGRESS OF CARD-PLAYING 92
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CARDS, AND THE MARKS OF THE SUITS 189
CHAPTER V.
THE MORALITY OF CARD-PLAYING 279
APPENDIX 331
INDEX 337
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
The "Honours" of an eight-suit pack of Hindostanee Cards 42
Specimens of Chinese Cards, of the kind called
_Tseen-wan-che-pae_ 57-8
A Card Party, from an illustration in a manuscript of the _Cité
de Dieu_, apparently of the early part of the fifteenth century 71
Copies of Old Stencilled Cards in the British Museum, apparently
of a date not later than 1440 88-9
Fac-simile of one of Murner's Cards for teaching logic, 1509 105
Copies of Four Small Cards, from Marcolini's Sorti, 1540 117
Woodcut, "Thus of Old" and "Thus Now," from Samuel Ward's Woe
to Drunkards, 1627 131
The Knaves of Hearts and Clubs; and the Knaves of Spades and
Diamonds, from the Four Knaves, by Samuel Rowlands, 1610-13 133-6
Fac-similes of four Heraldic Cards, from a pack engraved in
England about 1678 152
Fac-similes of the Signatures of Edmund Hoyle and Thomas Osborne 170
Copy of a plate in Darly's Political and Satirical History,
showing the Coat Cards for 1759 183
Copies of two of the painted cards, ascribed to Jacquemin
Gringonneur, preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi at Paris 198
Copies of four French Cards, coloured,--the King of Diamonds; the
Queen and King of Spades; and the King of Hearts,--of the
latter part of the fifteenth century 212
Copies of the Four Knaves, coloured,--Lancelot, Hogier, Roland,
and Valery,--of the latter part of the fifteenth century. In
the British Museum 214
Copies of Eight Circular Cards belonging to a pack engraved on
copper about 1480, with Hares, Parroquets, Pinks, and
Columbines as the marks of the suit 222
Four Cards of a pack engraved on copper, apparently about the end
of the fifteenth century, with Swords, Clubs, Cups, and
Pomegranates, as the marks of the suits. In the British Museum 225
The Sevens of a pack of Tarots, with Swords, Cups, Batons, and
Money as the marks of the suits 227
The Second Coat Cards of the suits of Acorns and Leaves--in a
German pack engraved on wood, 1511 236-7
The Sevens of a pack of German Cards, with Bells, Hearts, Leaves,
and Acorns, as the marks of the suits 239
Copies of Four Small German Cards, of the seventeenth century 239
The Valets of a pack of French Cards, of the time of Henry IV 250
The Chevaliers, or Valets, of a pack of Portuguese Cards, of the
date 1693 252
Figure of "the real Spata," as shown in Baker's Eclectic Cards,
1813 261
Tail-piece, Cheating Time with Cards 330
Cupid; from a cut relating to Prophecies and Fortune-telling, in
Bagford's Collection, Harleian MSS. 5966 336
The Four of Cups, from an old card, in the same collection 343
ORIGIN AND HISTORY
OF
PLAYING CARDS.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE ORIGIN AND NAME OF CARDS
Man has been distinctively termed "a _cooking_ animal;" and Dr.
Franklin has defined him to be "a _tool-making_ animal." He may also,
with equal truth, be defined to be "a _gambling_ animal;" since to
gamble, or venture, on chance, his own property, with the hope of
winning the property of another, is as peculiar to him, in distinction
from other animals, as his broiling a fish after he has caught it with
his hands, or making for himself a stone hatchet to enable him to fell
a tree. Whether this gambling peculiarity is to be ascribed to the
superiority of his intellectual or of his physical constitution, others
may determine for themselves.
Other animals, in common with man, will fight for meat, drink, and
lodging; and will do battle for love as fiercely as the ancient knights
of chivalry, whose great incitements to heroic deeds--in plain English,
killing and wounding--were ladye-love and the honour of the peacock.
There is, however, no well-authenticated account of any of the lower
orders of animals ever having been seen risking their property at "odd
or even," or drawing lots for choice of pasturage. No shepherd has ever
yet succeeded in teaching his sagacious colley to take a hand at cards
with him on the hill side; the most knowing monkey has never been able
to comprehend the mysteries of "tossing;" and even the learned pig,
that tells people their fortune by the cards, is never able to learn
what is trumps.
Seeing, then, that to gamble is exclusively proper to man,--_secundum
essentiam consecutive_,--and admitting that,
"The proper study of mankind is man,"
it plainly follows, that as Playing Cards are the instruments of the
most fascinating species of gambling that ever was devised by the
ingenuity of man, their origin and history are a very proper subject
for rational discussion. The cooking, tool-making, gambling animal
displays its rationality, according to Dr. Franklin, by its knowing
how to find or invent a plausible pretext for whatever it has an
inclination to do.
Judging from the manner in which the origin and history of Playing
Cards have been treated by various authors within the last hundred and
fifty years, it is evident that the subject, whatever they may have
made of it, is one of great "capability," to use the favorite term
of a great designer in the landscape-gardening line; and it seems no
less evident that some of those authors have been disposed to magnify
its apparent insignificance by associating it with other topics,
which are generally allowed to be both interesting and important.
In this respect they have certainly shown great _tact_; for though
many learned men have, at different periods, written largely and
profoundly on very trifling subjects, yet it does seem necessary for
a man, however learned and discreet, to set forth, either in his
title-page or in his proemium, something like an apology for his
becoming the historiographer of Playing Cards,--things in themselves
slightly esteemed even by those who use them most, and frequently
termed by pious people "the devil's books." The example which has thus
been set I am resolved to follow; for though, in the title-page, I
announce no other topic for the purpose of casting a borrowed light
on the principal subject, I yet wish the reader to understand that I
am writing an apology for it now; and in the progress of the work I
doubt not that I shall be found as discursive as most of those who have
previously either reasoned or speculated on Playing Cards.
A history of Playing Cards, treating of them in all their possible
relations, associations, and bearings, would form nearly a complete
cyclopædia of science and art; and would still admit of being further
enlarged by an extensive biographical supplement, containing sketches
of the lives of celebrated characters who have played at cards,--or
at any other game. CARDS would form the centre--the _point_, having
position, but no space,--from which a radius of indefinite extent might
sweep a circle comprehending not only all that man knows, but all that
he speculates on. The power of reach, by means of the point and the
radius, being thus obtained, the operator has his choice of topics; and
can arrange them round his centre, and colour them at his will, as boys
at school colour their fanciful segments of a circle.
To exemplify what has just been said about the capability of cards as
a subject of disquisition:--One writer, Père Menestrier,[1] preluding
on the invention of cards, says, _apropos_ to the term JEU--_ludus_, a
game--that, to the Supreme Being the creation of the world was only a
kind of game; and that schoolmasters with the Romans were called Ludi
Magistri--masters of the game or sport. Here, then, is a fine
opportunity for a descant on creation; and for showing that the whole
business of human life, from the cradle to the grave, is but a game;
that all the world is a great "gaming-house,"--to avoid using a word
offensive to ears polite,--
"And all the men and women merely _players_."
Illustrative of this view of human life, a couple of pertinent
quotations, from Terence and Plutarch, are supplied by another brother
of the same craft, M. C. Leber.[2]
According to Père Daniel,[3]--a reverend father of the order of
Jesuits, who wrote an elaborate history of the French Military
Establishments,--the game of Piquet is symbolic, allegorical, military,
political, and historical, and contains a number of important maxims
relating to war and government. Now, granting, for the sake of
argument, that the game, with respect to its esoteric principles,
is really enigmatic, it may be fairly denied that Père Daniel has
succeeded in explaining it correctly; his fancied discoveries may be
examined in detail, and shown, with very little trouble, to be the mere
seethings of his own working imagination; others may be proposed, and,
as a matter of course, supported by authorities, ancient and modern, on
the origin, use, and meaning of symbols and allegories, and illustrated
with maxims of war and state policy, carefully selected from the
bulletins, memoirs, and diplomatic correspondence of the great military
chiefs and statesmen of all nations: thus a respectable volume--in
point of size at least--might be got up on the subject of Piquet alone,
without trenching on the wide field of cards in general.
Court de Gebelin,[4] a Gnostic, at least in the philosophic, if not in
the religious, sense of the word, finds in the old Italian Tarocchi
cards the vestiges of the learning of the ancient Egyptians, somewhat
mutilated and disguised, indeed, by Gothic ignorance, which suspected
not the profound knowledge concealed in its playthings, but still
intelligible to the penetrating genius which initiates itself into all
ancient mysteries, is fond of exploring the profoundly obscure, and
becomes oracular, talking confidently of what it _sees_, when it is
only groping in the dark. Court de Gebelin's theory suggests at once
a general history of science and art, which, as everybody knows, had
their cradle in ancient Egypt, and induces dim, but glorious visions
of the ancient Egyptian kings,--Sesonch, Rameses, and Amonoph: the
chronologers, Sanchoniathon, Manetho, and Berosus, follow, as a matter
of course, whether originally known from Bishop Cumberland, or from
Mr. Jenkinson, in the 'Vicar of Wakefield.' Then who can think of the
knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, and of its essence being contained
in the symbolic characters of a pack of cards, without hieroglyphic
writing coming into his mind?[5] and this subject, being once started,
leads naturally, in chronological order, to Clemens Alexandrinus,
Horapollo, Athanasius Kircher, Bishop Warburton, Dr. Thomas Young,
and Mons. Champollion. To write properly a history of Playing Cards
in connexion with the learning of the Egyptians, as suggested by the
dissertation of Court de Gebelin, would require the unwearied energy of
one of those brazen-bowelled scholars who flourished at Alexandria when
ancient science and art, sinking into a state of second childhood, had
again found a cradle in Egypt. Oh, Isis, mother of Horus, how is thy
image multiplied! Though changed in name, millions still worship it,
ignorant of the type of that before which they bow.[6] All is symbol:
the cards of the gamester are symbolic; full of meaning of high import,
and yet he is ignorant of it, cares not to know it, though Court de
Gebelin would teach him; is indifferent about his soul, and prays only
that he may hold a good hand of trumps,--symbol again![7]
As cards are printed on paper, from engraved blocks of wood, and as
wood-engraving appears to have suggested the art of typography, or
printing from moveable types, Breitkopf combines in one general essay
his inquiries into the origin of playing cards, the introduction
of linen paper, and the beginning of wood-engraving in Europe;[8]
this essay being but a portion of the author's intended History of
Printing. Singer[9] follows very nearly the same plan as Breitkopf; but
though his Researches form a goodly quarto, both in point of size and
appearance, he yet has not looked into every corner. The wide field of
Playing Cards still admits of further cultivation; for, though often
turned up by the heavy subsoil plough of antiquarian research and well
harrowed by speculation, it remains undrained.
In the 'Nouvelles Annales des Voyages,'[10] we find a dissertation by
M. Rey, on Playing Cards, and the Mariner's Compass; apparently two
incongruous things, yet indissolubly connected by the fleur-de-lis,
which is to be seen on the drapery of some of the court or _coat_
cards, and which also forms an ornament to the north point. It appears
that this dissertation on cards and the compass is but a fragment of a
work composed by M. Rey, on the flag, colours, and badges of the French
monarchy. Judging of his talents, from this "fragment," he appears to
have been admirably fitted to write a general history of cards; and it
is to be regretted that he did not give to his so-called "fragment,"
that comprehensive title, and introduce the essay on the mariner's
compass and the history of the French flag as incidental illustrations
of the fleur-de-lis, for certainly the fragment on cards,--rent from
a history of the French flag,--does seem a little out of place, in a
general collection of voyages and travels, unless, indeed, it be there
introduced as a traveller's tale.
Mons. C. Leber, one of the most recent writers on Playing Cards,[11]
is an author, whom it is very difficult to follow in his devious
course; for though he is always picking up something that appears to
relate to his subject, he yet does not seem to have had any clear idea
of what he was seeking for. The grand questions, he says, are, "Where
do cards come from; what are they; what do they say; and what ought
we to think of them?" These questions, however, Mons. Leber, by no
means undertakes to answer. He confines himself, as he says, to a very
narrow path--a very crooked one too, he might have added--avoiding the
wide and flowery field of conjecture, but diligently amassing _facts_
to guide other inquirers into the origin and primary use of Playing
Cards. He is certain that they are of ancient origin, and of Eastern
invention; and that primarily they constituted a symbolic and moral
game. He professes to be guided in his researches by the evidence
of cards themselves; but though a diligent collector of cards of
all kinds, he does not appear to have been successful in extracting
answers from his witnesses. They all stand mute. In short, Mons.
Leber, notwithstanding his diligence as a collector of cards, and his
chiffonier-like gathering of scraps connected with them, has left their
history pretty nearly the same as he found it. In the genuine spirit of
a collector, he still longs for more old cards,--but then, how to find
them?
Such precious reliques are not to be obtained by mere labour; they
turn up fortuitously, mostly in the covers of old books, and as none
that have hitherto been discovered explain their origin and presumed
emblematic meaning, it is a _chance_ that the materials for a full
and complete history of Playing Cards will ever be obtained. "In the
mean time," says Mons. Leber, "we must wait till this work of time and
perseverance shall be accomplished."[12] To interpret his words from
his own example, "to wait," may mean, to keep moving without advancing,
like a squirrel in a wheel. Notwithstanding all the old cards that
have been discovered, and all that has been collected on the subject,
from both tale and history, "how far are we from possessing," exclaims
Mons. Leber, "and who shall ever amass, all the elements necessary for
a positive history of playing cards."[13] Thus much may serve by way of
introduction, and as evidence of the "capability" of the subject.
Man, as a gambling animal, has the means of indulging in his hopeful
propensity, as soon as he has acquired a property either real or
personal, and can distinguish odd from even, or a short straw from a
shorter. The first game that he played at, in the golden age of happy
ignorance, would naturally be one of pure chance. We have no positive
information about this identical game in any ancient or modern author;
but we may fairly suppose, for no one can prove the supposition to
be false, that it was either "drawing lots," or guessing at "odd or
even."[14] Imagination suggests that the stakes might be acorns, or
chesnuts; and though reason may "query the fact," yet she cannot
controvert it. It is evident that at either of the two simple games
above named, a player, when it came to his turn to hold, might improve
his chance of winning, by means of a little dexterous management,
vulgarly called cheating, and thus, to a certain extent, emancipate
himself from the laws of blind Fortune,--a personification of chance
which a gambler, most assuredly, first elevated to the rank of a
divinity.[15] That cheating is nearly coeval with gaming, cannot admit
of a doubt; and it is highly probable that this mode of giving an
eccentric motion to Fortune's wheel was discovered, if not actually
practised, at the first regular bout, under the oaks of Dodona, or
elsewhere, before the flood of Thessaly.[16]
Man, having left the woods for the meadows, progressing from the
sylvan or savage state to that of a shepherd, now not only roasts his
chesnuts, but also eats a bit of mutton to them; and after having
picked the leg clean, forms of the small bones, between the shank and
the foot, new instruments of gaming. Taking a certain number of those
bones, three for instance, he makes on four sides of each a certain
number of marks: on one side a single point, and on the side opposite
six points; on another side three points, and on the opposite four.
Putting these bones into a cow's horn, he shakes them together, and
then throws them out; and accordingly, as the points may run high,
or as the cast may be of three different numbers, so does he count
his game.[17] Conventional rules for playing are now established;
definite values, independent of the number of points, are assigned to
different casts; some being reckoned high, while others are counted
low, and sometimes positively against the player, although the chance
of their turning up be the same as that of the former. The game now
becomes more complicated; and the chances being more numerous, and the
odds more various, a knowing gamester who plays regularly, and makes
a calculation of the probability of any given number, or combination
of points, being thrown, either at a single cast, or out of a certain
number, has an advantage in betting over his more simple-minded
competitors. "Luck is all!" exclaims the novice,--and guesses; the
adept mutters, "Knowledge is power,"--and counts.
The cutting of bones into cubes, or dice, and numbering them on all
their six sides, would probably be the next step in gaming; and there
are grounds for supposing that the introduction of dice was shortly
followed by the invention of something like backgammon; a game which
affords greater scope for calculation than dice, and allows also of
the player displaying his skill in the management of his men. Should
it be asked, what has any of those games to do with the origin of
cards? I answer, in the words of an Irish guide, when pointing out to
a traveller several places which he was not wanting to find,--"Well,
then, none of them's it."
The next game, which it seems necessary to notice, is the Πεττεια of
the Greeks, and the Latrunculi of the Latins; as in the sequel it
may perhaps be found to have some positive, though remote, relation
to the game of cards. It would be superfluous here to inquire if the
game of Πεττεια, or Latrunculi, were really that which was invented
by Palamedes during the Trojan War; it may be sufficient to remark,
that it is mentioned by Homer, who, in the first book of the Odyssey,
represents Penelope's suitors playing at it:
"Before the door they were amusing themselves at _tables_,
Sitting on the skins of oxen which they themselves had killed."[18]
In whatever country the game may have been invented, or however it may
have been originally played, it was certainly not a game of chance. It
was a scientific game requiring the exercise of the mind, and wholly
dependent as to its result on the comparative skill of the two players;
he who displayed the greatest judgment in moving his pieces, according
to the rules of the game, being the winner.[19]
This game appears to have been similar to that described in Strutt's
'Sports and Pastimes,' under the name of Merrels, which is still played
in many parts of England, and which was, and may be still, a common
game in almost every country in Europe. It appears to have branched out
into several species, with the Greeks and Romans; and though, in some
of them, the game was very intricate, it yet never attained with those
people to the perfection of chess. One of those varieties of Petteia,
or Latrunculi, seems to have been very like the game of draughts; it
was played with pieces or men, of two different colours, placed on a
board divided into several squares, and a man of one party could be
taken by the opponent when he succeeded in inclosing it between two of
his own.[20]
Whatever may have been the origin of chess, it seems to be generally
admitted that the game, nearly the same in its principles as it is now
played,--with its board of sixty-four squares, and men of different
grades,--was first devised in India; and, without giving implicit
credit to the well-known account of its invention by an Indian named
Sissa, we may assume that the date assigned to it, namely, about the
beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era, is sufficiently
correct for all practical purposes: a difference of two or three
hundred years, either one way or the other, is of very little
importance in a conjecture about the game, as connected with Playing
Cards. Having now arrived at Chess, we fancy that we see something like
"land," though it may be but a fog-bank after all. To speak without
figure, it seems likely that the game of cards was suggested by that of
chess.
The affinity of the two games, and the similarity between the coat
cards and the principal pieces in the game of chess, have already been
pointed out by Breitkopf;[21] and he is so copious on the latter topic,
that he has left but little for any of his successors to do, in this
respect, except to condense his diffuse notes; for, as was said of
William Prynne, his brains are generally to be found scattered about
the margin of his works, and not in the text.
A side, or suit, of chessmen consists of six orders, which in the
old oriental game were named--1, _Schach_, the king; 2, _Pherz_, the
general; 3, _Phil_, the elephant; 4, _Aspen-suar_, the horseman,
or chevalier; 5, _Ruch_, the camel; and, 6, _Beydel_ or _Beydak_,
the footmen or infantry. In this suit there was no queen, as the
introduction of a female into a game representing the stratagems of
war would have been contrary to the oriental ideas of propriety; and
long after the introduction of chess into Europe, the second piece,
now called the Queen, retained its Eastern name under the form of
_Fierce_, _Fierche_, or _Fierge_, even after it had acquired a feminine
character.[22] _Fierge_ at length becomes confounded with the French
_Vierge_, a maid; and finally, the piece is called _Dame_, the lady,
and so becomes thoroughly European, both in name and character. With
respect to the changes which the other pieces have undergone in the
European game of chess, it is only necessary to observe that _Phil_,
the elephant, is now the _Fol_ or _Fou_ of the French, and the _Bishop_
of the English; _Aspen-suar_, the horseman, is the French _Chevalier_,
and the English _Knight_; _Ruch_, the camel, is the French _Tour_,
and the English _Rook_ or _Castle_; and the _Beydel_ or _Beydak_, the
footmen, are now the French _Pions_, and the English _Pawns_.
Now the very same change that has taken place in the second piece
in chess--namely, from a male to a female--has also happened to the
second principal figure in French and English cards. Among the oldest
_numeral_ cards that have yet been discovered no Queen is to be found;
the three principal figures or coat cards being the King, the Knight,
and the Valet or Knave. There was no Queen in the old Spanish pack of
cards; nor was there usually in the German in the time of Heineken and
Breitkopf. In the Spanish, the coat cards of each suit were the King
(_Rey_), the Knight (_Cavallo_), and the Knave, groom, or attendant
(_Sota_); in the German, the King (_König_), a chief officer (_Ober_),
and a Subaltern (_Unter_).[23] The Italians, instead of making any
change in the old coat cards, sometimes added the Queen to them, so
that they had four instead of three, namely, _Re_, _Reina_, _Cavallo_,
and _Fante_.
The following extracts from an Essay on the Indian Game of Chess,
by Sir William Jones, printed in the second volume of the 'Asiatic
Researches,' seem to establish more clearly than anything that has
been expressly written on the subject, either by Breitkopf or others,
the affinity between cards and chess: "If evidence be required to
prove that chess was invented by the Hindus, we may be satisfied with
the testimony of the Persians; who, though as much inclined as other
nations to appropriate the ingenious inventions of a foreign people,
unanimously agree, that the game was imported from the west of India,
together with the charming fables of Vishnusarman in the sixth century
of our era. It seems to have been immemorially known in Hindustan by
the name of _Chaturanga_, that is the FOUR _angas_, or members of an
army, which are said, in the Amaracosha, to be elephants, horses,
chariots, and foot-soldiers; and in this sense the word is frequently
used by epic poets in their descriptions of real armies. By a natural
corruption of the pure Sanscrit word, it was changed by the old
Persians into Chatrang; but the Arabs, who soon after took possession
of their country, had neither the initial nor final letter of that
word in their alphabet, and consequently altered it further into
_Shatranj_,[24] which found its way presently into the modern Persian,
and at length into the dialects of India, where the true derivation of
the name is known only to the learned. Thus has a very significant word
in the sacred language of the Brahmans been transferred by successive
changes into Axedras, Scacchi, Echecs, Chess; and, by a whimsical
concurrence of circumstances, given birth to the English word _check_,
and even a name to the _Exchequer_ of Great Britain.
"Of this simple game, so exquisitely contrived, and so certainly
invented in India, I cannot find any account in the classical writings
of the Brahmans. It is indeed confidently asserted that Sanscrit books
on Chess exist in this country; and if they can be procured at Benares,
they will assuredly be sent to us. At present, I can only exhibit a
description of a very ancient Indian game of the same kind; but more
complex, and, in my opinion, more modern than the simple chess of the
Persians. This game is also called _Chaturanga_, but more frequently
_Chaturaji_, or the _Four Kings_, since it is played by four persons,
representing as many princes, two allied armies combating on each side.
The description is taken from the Bhawishya Puran, in which Yudhist'hir
is represented conversing with Vyasa, who explains, at the king's
request, the form of the fictitious warfare, and the principal rules of
it. 'Having marked eight squares on all sides,' says the sage, 'place
the _red_ army to the east, the _green_ to the south, the _yellow_ to
the west, and the _black_ the north.'"[25]--It is worthy of remark,
that these colours form the ground of four of the suits of one of the
divisions of an eight-suit pack of Hindostanee cards.
It appears that in this game the moves were determined by casts with
dice, as in backgammon, so that it was one of chance as well as skill.
On this point Sir William Jones observes: "The use of dice may,
perhaps, be justified in a representation of war, in which _fortune_
has unquestionably a great share, but it seems to exclude Chess from
the rank which has been assigned to it among the sciences, and to give
the game before us the appearance of _Whist_, except that pieces are
used only instead of cards, which are held concealed."
Though Sir William Jones mentions Whist in particular, it is yet
apparent, from his own description, that the similarity of _Chaturaji_
to any other game of cards played by four persons is precisely the
same. This evidence of the similarity, between a game of cards and
an ancient Indian game of chess, is the more important, as the fact
appears to have forced itself upon the notice of the writer, rather
than to have been sought for.
It may here be observed, that in the wardrobe accounts of Edward I,
there is an item, of money paid for the use of the king for playing
at the Four Kings--Quatuor Reges--and that it has been conjectured
that the game was cards. The Hon. Daines Barrington, who appears to
have been of this opinion, says: "the earliest mention of cards that I
have yet stumbled upon is in Mr. Anstis's History of the Garter, where
he cites the following passage from the Wardrobe Rolls, in the sixth
year of Edward the First, [1278]: 'Waltero Sturton, ad opus regis ad
ludendum ad _quatuor reges_ viiis. _vd._' From which entry Mr. Anstis
with some probability conjectures, that playing cards were not unknown
at the latter end of the thirteenth century; and perhaps what I shall
add may carry with it some small confirmation of what he supposes."[26]
As this is not the place to discuss the question, if playing cards
were known in England so early as the reign of Edward I, it may be
sufficient to remark that the substance of what Mr. Barrington has
adduced in confirmation of Anstis's conjecture consists in a statement
of the fact of Edward having been in Syria, and that he might have
learned the game of cards there[27]--taking it for granted that cards
were of Eastern invention, and known in Syria at that period,--and in
a second-hand reference to Breitkopf for a passage in the Güldin Spil,
wherein it is stated that a certain game--cards being unquestionably
meant--first came into Germany about the year 1300.
From Sir William Jones's account of the game of _Chaturanga_ or, more
specifically, _chaturaji_--the Four Rajas, or Kings--there can scarcely
be a doubt that the game of the Four Kings played at by Edward I, was
chess, and that this name was a literal translation of the Indian one.
Assuming this, then, as an established fact, we have evidence of the
number four being associated in Europe at that period with the game of
chess, which, as has been previously shown, bore so great a resemblance
to a game of cards.
Now, whatever may have been the origin of the name of cards, it is
undeniable that the idea of the number _four_ is very generally
associated with them; there are four suits, and in each suit there
are four honours, reckoning the ace;--to say nothing of the very old
game of All Fours, which may have originally meant winning in each of
the four Angas or divisions, now represented by High, Low, Jack, and
the Game. It is also certain that, in this country, cards were called
the Books of the Four Kings, long before the passage relating to the
game of _Quatuor Reges_, which might have suggested the name, appeared
in Anstis's History of the Garter. They are so called by Sir Thomas
Urquhart, in his translation of Rabelais, in chapter 22, book i, which
contains an account of the games that Gargantua played at: "After
supper, were brought into the room the fair wooden gospels, and the
books of the _Four Kings_, that is to say, the tables and cards."[28]
Cards are not indeed called the Books of the Four Kings in the original
text of Rabelais; though it is certain that they were known in France
by that name, and that the Valets or Knaves were also called _fous_--a
term which, as Peignot remarks, corroborates Breitkopf's theory of the
analogy between chess and cards.[29] Mrs. Piozzi, speaking of cards,
in her Retrospection, published in 1801, says, "It is a well-known
vulgarity in England to say, 'Come, Sir, will you have a stroke at the
history of the Four Kings?' meaning, Will you play a game at cards?"
A writer in Fraser's Magazine, for August, 1844, also calls cards the
books of the Four Kings, as if they were well known by that name.
Now as _chahar_, _chatur_, or, as the word is sometimes written in
English, _chartah_, signifies four in the Hindostanee language, as it
enters into the composition of _chaturanga_, and as chess probably
suggested the game of cards, I am inclined to think that both games
were invented in Hindostan, and that _chahar_ or _chatur_ in the
language of that country formed a portion of the original name of
cards. The common term for cards in Hindostan, is _Taj_ or _Tas_; and
its primary meaning, as I am informed, is a leaf, _folium_. But as
it is also used in a figurative sense to signify a diadem or crown,
and as the term signifying a _crown_ is frequently used in most
languages to signify regal authority, the compound term _chahar-taj_,
or _chahar-tas_, would be suggestive of nearly the same idea as "the
Four Kings," and be almost identical in sound with the Latin _chartæ_
or _chartas_. The name, whatever it might be, would be liable to change
in passing from Hindostan, through other countries, into Europe; in
the same manner as we find _Chaturanga_, the Sanscrit name of chess,
transformed into the Persian _Chatrang_, the Arabic _Shatranj_, the
Greek _Zatrikion_, the Spanish _Axedrez_, the Italian _Scacchi_, the
German _Schach_, the French _Echecs_, and the English _Chess_.
The name given to cards by the earliest French and German writers
who mention them, is, respectively, _Cartes_ and _Karten_--in Latin,
_Chartæ_; but as _Charta_ signifies _paper_, and as cards are made of
paper, it has generally been supposed that they received their name
from that circumstance. But if a part of their original name signified
the number _four_, whether derived from an eastern root, or from the
Latin _quarta_, it can scarcely be doubted that they acquired the
name of _chartæ_, not in consequence of their being made of paper,
but because the Latin word which signified paper had nearly the same
sound as another word which signified four,--in the same manner as
_Pherz_, the General, in chess, found a representative in _Fierge_,
and subsequently became confounded with _Vierge_: the ideal change of
_Vierge_ into _Dame_, the wife of the king, followed of course, like
"wooed,--an' married an' a'."
It is deserving of remark, that in several old French works, written
within fifty years of the time when we have positive evidence of the
game of cards being known in France, the word is sometimes spelled
_quartz_ or _quartes_, as if, in the mind of the writer, it was rather
associated with the idea of _four_ than with that of _paper_. The
possible derivation of _cards_ from _quarta_, was suggested by Mr.
Gough, in his Observations on the Invention of Cards, in the eighth
volume of the 'Archæologia,' though he was of opinion that they
obtained their name from the paper of which they were made. "Perhaps,"
says he, "it may be too bold a conjecture that the '_quartes_, ludus
_quartarum_ sive cartarum,' by which Junius [in his Etymologicon]
explains _cards_, may be derived from _quarta_, which, Du Cange says,
is used simply for the fourth part of any thing, and so may be referred
to the _quatuor reges_; but as Du Cange expressly says, that _quarta_
and _carta_ are synonymous, I lay no stress on this, but leave it to
the critics."
To carry still further this speculation on the Indian origin of Playing
Cards,--both name and thing,--it is to be observed that cards are
called _Naibi_, by the earliest Italian writers who mention them; and
that they have always been called _Naypes_, or _Naipes_, in Spain,
since the time of their first introduction into that country. Now
in Hindostan, where we find the word Chahar, Chatur, or Chartah,
they have also the word Na-eeb, or Naib, which, judging from the
sound only, appears at least as likely to have been the original of
_naibi_ and _naipe_, as it is of the English _Nabob_.[30] This word
_Na-eeb_ signifies a viceroy, lieutenant, or deputy, who rules over a
certain district, as a feudatory who owes allegiance to a sovereign.
Now, as the game of chess was known in Hindostan by the name of the
Four Kings, if cards were suggested by chess, and invented in the
same country, the supposition that they might have been called
_Chatur-Nawaub_--the Four Viceroys, as the cognate game of chess was
called the Four Kings--and that this name subsequently became changed
into _Chartah-Naib_, is, at least, as probable as the derivation
of Naipes from N.P., the initials of Nicolas Pepin, their supposed
inventor. Though this last etymology has very much the appearance of a
conundrum, propounded in jest for the purpose of ridiculing a certain
class of etymologists who always seek for roots at the surface, it is
nevertheless that which received the sanction of the royal Spanish
Academy, and which is given in their Dictionary.[31] Several Spanish
writers, however, of high reputation for their knowledge of the
formation of their native language, have decidedly asserted that the
word _Naipes_, signifying cards, whatever it might have originally
meant, was derived from the Arabic; and if the testimony of Covelluzzo,
a writer quoted in Bussi's History of the City of Viterbo, could be
relied on, the question respecting the word Naibi or Naipes, and cards
themselves, having been brought into Europe through the Arabs, would
appear to be determined. His words are: "Anno 1379, fu recato in
Viterbo el GIOCO DELLE CARTE, CHE VENNE DE SERACINIA, e chiamisi tra
loro NAIB."[32] That is, "In the year 1379, was brought into Viterbo
the game of cards, which comes from the country of the Saracens, and
is with them called NAIB." It may be observed, that the very word here
given as the Arabic name for cards still signifies in Arabia a deputy
of the Sultan. Even though it may not be a word of Hindostanee origin,
it may have been introduced into that language when a great portion of
Hindostan was subjected to the Mahometan yoke, and when many of the
Rajahs of native race were superseded by the _Naibs_ or deputies of a
Mahometan sovereign.[33] There appears reason to believe that the word
_Naipe_ or _Naipes_, as applied to cards, did not primarily signify
_cards_ generally, but was rather a designation of the game played
with cards; in the same manner as "the Four Kings" signified the game
at cards, in consequence of a king being the chief of each of the four
suits. In Vieyra's Portuguese Dictionary, 1773, one of the explanations
of the word "Naipe" is, "a Suit of Cards;" and the phrase, "Náo tenho
nenhuma daquelle naipe," is translated, "I have none of that suit."
It is not unlikely that the Greek word χαρτης,--Latin, _Charta_,
paper,--was derived from the East, and that it was originally
associated with the idea of "four," as expressive of a
_square_--_quarré_--of paper, in contra-distinction to a long
strip of paper or parchment, which, when _rolled_ up, formed an
ενειλεμα, or _volume_. In middle-age Greek, the word χαρταριον, or
χαρτιον,[34]--which is unquestionably derived from the same root as
χαρτης,--appears to have been used to convey the idea of a square, or
four-sided piece of wood, and to have specifically signified a square
wooden trencher: the top of the trencher-cap worn at the Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge, and at some of our public schools, may be
considered as a representative of the general form of the thing. It is
curious to trace how a word primarily expressive of the number _four_
has, in Greek, Latin, French, and English, been employed to signify
either paper generally, or a portion of paper. From the French _Cahier_
or _cayer_[35]--which may be traced through _carré_ or _quarré_, to the
Latin _quartus_, from _quatuor_--we have the old English _quair_, a
little paper book consisting of a few sheets; and the modern _quire_,
now signifying a definite number of sheets of paper.
In Hindostanee the word _chit_ signifies, I believe, a note or letter,
and is in this sense synonymous with the Latin _Epistola_, and the
German _Briefe_. Should it also signify paper,[36] either in general,
or of a particular kind, and be cognate with _chahar_, _chatur_, or
_chartah_,[37]--"four,"--the preceding speculations on the primary
meaning of χαρτης, _charta_, and _cards_, will be materially
corroborated. I leave, however, the investigation of this point to
those who understand the Hindostanee language, as all the knowledge
that I have of the word in question, is derived from one of Theodore
Hook's tales, Passion and Principle, in the first series of 'Sayings
and Doings.' Wherever he might have picked it up, the effect with which
he uses it is peculiarly his own.
Breitkopf, who is decidedly of opinion that cards are of Eastern
invention, and of great antiquity, considers that the name Naibe,
or Naipes, by which they were first known to the Italians and the
Spaniards, is derived from an Arabic word--_Nabaa_--signifying
divination, foretelling future events, fortune-telling, and such like.
In this opinion he says he is confirmed by the exposition of the
Hebrew word _Naibes_, which he seems to think cognate with the Arabic
Nabaa.[38] He, however, produces no evidence to show that cards were
known either to the Arabians or the Jews by the name of Naibe, and from
a subsequent passage in his work, it is evident that the conjecture
was suggested merely from the circumstance of cards being occasionally
employed for the purposes of fortune-telling.
Heineken, who contends that cards were invented in Germany, alleges
the name--_Briefe_--given to them in that country in support of the
presumed fact. "Playing Cards," he observes, "were called with us
_Briefe_, that is _letters_, in Latin, _Epistolæ_, and they are called
so still. The common people do not say, 'give me a pack of cards,' but
'a _Spiel Briefe_' (un jeu de lettres); and they do not say 'I want a
card,' but 'I want a _Brief_' (a letter). We should, at least, have
preserved the name _cards_, if they had come to us from France; for
the common people always preserve the names of all games that come
from other countries."[39] This argument is contradicted by the fact
of cards having been called _Karten_ in Germany, before they acquired
there the name of _Briefe_; and this very word _Briefe_, which is
merely a translation of the Latin _Chartæ_, is presumptive evidence
of the Germans having obtained their knowledge of cards from either
the French or the Italians, with whom the name cards, when "done" into
Latin, had the same meaning as the German word _Briefe_.
With respect to the term Naibes, or Naipes, there are two etymologies
which seem deserving of notice here; the one propounded by Bullet, in
his 'Recherches Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer;' and the other
by Eloi Johanneau, in his 'Mélanges d'Origines Etymologiques.' Mons.
Bullet thinks that cards are of French origin, and that they were not
invented before the introduction of linen paper,--his chief reason
for fixing this epoch as a ne-plus-ultra being evidently founded on
their Latinised name, _chartæ_. From France he supposes that they
passed into Spain by way of Biscay, and acquired in their passage the
name of Naipes. This word, according to Mons. Bullet, is derived from
the Basque term _napa_, signifying "plat, plain, uni," which very
properly designates cards, and corresponds with the Latin _charta_.
This etymology is fanciful rather than felicitous; if _charta_ were
synonymous with _mensa_,--a table,--the Basque term _napa_ would appear
to correspond more nearly with it. But the Basque language, like the
Celtic, is one peculiarly adapted for etymological speculation; a
person who understands a little of it, may readily grub up in its wild
fertility a root for any word which he may not be able to supply with a
radical elsewhere.[40]
Mons. Eloi Johanneau is of opinion that cards are of much higher
antiquity than they are generally supposed to be; and with respect
to their Spanish name, Naipes, the origin of it, is, to him, too
plain and simple to require the aid of any scarce or voluminous
works to prove it; it is, in short, one of those truths which, to be
perceived, requires only to be enounced. This incontestable truth
is, that the word _naipe_, a card, comes from the Latin _mappa_, the
_m_ being merely changed into an _n_. Of this antithesis, or change
of a letter, several examples are produced; as the French _nappe_, a
table-cloth, also from _mappa_; _nefle_ and _neflier_ from _mespilum_
and _mespilus_; and _faire la Sainte Mitouche_, for _faire la Sainte
Nitouche_. Then _naipe_ and _mappa_ have an analogous meaning. Naipes,
Playing Cards, scarcely differ from a _map_,--which is a geographic
card,--or, except in point of size, from a _nappe_, which is spread
like a chart on the table. In ancient times, too, mappa signified the
_tessara_, or signal, which was displayed at the games of the circus.
Tertullian, speaking of those games in his 'Diatribe De Spectaculis,'
says: "Non vident missum quid sit. _Mappam_ putant; sed est diaboli ab
alto præcipitati gula,"--"They perceive not what is displayed. They
think it the _mappa_, but it is the jaws of the devil." It is evident
from this, that in Tertullian's estimation, there was something very
wicked in the _mappa_; and the bad odour which, even at that early
period, the word was in, appears to have been retained by its presumed
derivative, _naipes_, ever since: _Servavit odorem diu_. But then for
the grand discovery: Mons. Johanneau finds, in Ducange's Glossary, a
passage cited from Papias, a lexicographer of the eleventh century,
which proves that the word _mappa_ then signified a Playing Card, and
that the game of cards was known at least three centuries previous to
the period assigned to its invention by the Abbé Rive.[41] "Mappa,"
according to Papias, "is a napkin; a picture, or representation of
games, is also called mapa; whence we say mapa mundi,"--a map of the
world. An ancient Latin and French glossary, also cited by Ducange,
explains the passage from Papias to the following effect: "Mapamundi,
a mapemunde (or geographic map); and it is derived from _mapa_, a
_nappe_, a picture or representation of games."[42] Though it may be
admitted that _nappe_, a table-cloth, or napkin, is derived from
mappa, and that the latter word was sometimes used to signify a picture
of some kind of game; it yet does not appear to be incontrovertibly
true, either that _mappa_, as explained by Papias, signified a card,
or a game of cards, or that the word _naipes_ was derived from it.
What Mons. Johanneau considers to be a self-evident truth, appears
in reality to be no better than one of those confident assertions
entitled, by courtesy, moral truths, in consequence of the sincerity
of the author's belief. A great many truths of this kind pass current
in the business of life, and maintain their nominal value, long after
their real character is known, upon the credit of the indorsers.
Wherever cards may have been first invented, and whatever may be
the etymology of the words _chartæ_ and _naipes_, or _naibi_, it is
certain that cards are now well known in Hindostan, where they form
the amusement of the natives, both Hindoos and Moslems. That they
were invented there, may be a matter of dispute; but that they have
been known there from an early period, and were not introduced there
from Europe, appears to be undeniable. The Hindoo cards are usually
circular; the number of suits is eight, and in some packs ten; and the
marks of the suits, though in some instances showing an agreement with
those of European cards, are evidently such as are peculiar to the
country, and identified with the customs, manners, and opinions of the
people. They coincide with the earliest European cards in having no
queen, the two coat cards--being a king and his principal minister or
attendant--and in the suits being distinguished by the colour as well
as by the form of the mark or emblem.
It appears necessary here to notice an objection, which readily
suggests itself to the supposed derivation of _chartæ_, cards, from a
word of eastern origin, signifying "four." It is this: if the ancient
Hindoo pack consisted of _eight_ or even _ten_ suits, would it not be
preposterous to derive the European name from a word which implies
that there were only _four_. Facts most assuredly are stubborn things,
and no speculation, whether lame of a leg, or going smoothly on "all
fours," can stand against them. It is not, however, proved that the
most ancient Hindoo cards consisted of eight or ten suits; and till
this be done, the speculation must just pass for what it is worth.
Whether there were eight, ten, or twenty suits, the derivation of
χαρτης, _charta_, paper, from a word of Eastern origin, would still be
unaffected. If the game of cards were suggested by that of chess, I
am inclined to think that the earliest pack would consist of only two
suits, and that more were subsequently added to satisfy the wants of
"busy idleness," for a more complicated game. Be this as it may, cards
did not arrive at Europe from Hindostan "per saltum;" it is probable
that their progress through the intervening countries was comparatively
slow; and even if they left home with a "suite" of eight, it is not
impossible that they might lose half of them by the way. But, to meet
the objection by a fact: from a description of a pack of Hindostanee
cards to be subsequently noticed, and of the game played with them,
it appears that the _eight_ suits are not considered as a single
series, but as two divisions of _four_ suits each.[43] This partition
corroborates both the theory of the game of cards being suggested by
that of chess, and of the name being derived from a word primarily
signifying the number four.
On the supposition, then, that cards were invented in the East, it
seems advisable to first give some account of the cards now used in
Hindustan, before entering into any investigation of the period when
the game was first brought into Europe. A high antiquity, indeed,
no less than a thousand years, is claimed for one of the packs
subsequently described; but rejecting t as a pure fiction, which the
apparent newness of the cards themselves contradicts, it may be fairly
assumed, seeing that in the East customs are slowly changed, that the
figures and symbols, or marks, on those cards are, in their forms and
signification generally, of at least as early a date as those which are
to be found on the oldest European cards.
There is no collection of Hindostanee cards in the Museum of the East
India Company; the purveyors, it would seem, not considering them
likely to be interesting even to the Lady Proprietors, who, though they
have no voice, at least in Leadenhall Street, yet have considerable
influence, by their votes, in the choice of Directors. The natives
of Hindustan always speak of "the Company" as if, in the abstract,
the great body of proprietors were a female,--"Mrs. Company;"[44] and
it would appear that the "direction" of things at home, is rapidly
approximating to a pure Gynecocracy.[45]
In the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society, there are three packs of
Hindostanee cards, one of them consisting of ten suits, and the other
two of eight suits each. In each suit, when complete, the number of
cards is twelve; that is two coat cards, or honours, and ten others,
whose numerical value is expressed by the number of marks upon them,
in a mode similar to that by which English cards, from the ace to the
ten, are distinguished by the number of the "pips." The cards of all
the packs are circular; the diameter of the largest is 2-3/4 inches,
and of the smallest about 2-1/8 inches. The material of which they are
formed would appear to be canvas,[46] but so stiffened with varnish,
that each single card feels like a piece of wood. All the figures and
marks appear to be executed by hand, not printed nor stencilled; each
pack is contained in an oblong box, the cards being placed on their
edges; and on the top and sides of the box, the marks or emblems of the
several suits are depicted. From the style of their execution, I should
conclude that card-painting in Hindostan, was a regular profession,
though possibly combined with some other, to "make ends meet,"
just as card-painting was combined with wood-engraving generally,
in Germany in the latter part of the fifteenth century; or just as
shaving and hair-cutting might, in former times, afford a decent
subsistence when eked out with a little surgery, such as blood-letting,
tooth-drawing,--"_Quæ prosunt omnibus artes_."
In giving a separate description of each of those packs, it seems most
proper to begin with that for which the highest antiquity is claimed.
This pack is one of the two which consist of eight suits; and, from
a memorandum which accompanies it, I have obtained the following
particulars respecting a former possessor and the presumed antiquity of
the cards. They formerly belonged to Captain D. Cromline Smith, to whom
they were presented, about the year 1815, by a high-caste Bramin, who
dwelt at Guntoor, or some other place in one of the northern Sircars
of Southern India. The Bramin considered them to be a great curiosity,
and informed Capt. Smith that they had been handed down in his family
from time immemorial. He supposed that they were a thousand years
old, or more; he did not know if they were perfect, but believed that
originally there were two more colours or suits. He said they were not
the same as the modern cards; that none knew how to play at them; and
that no books give any account of them. Such is the sum of the Bramin's
information. The writer of the memorandum,--looking at the costume of
the figures and the harness of the animals, and considering that the
Mahometans do not tolerate painted images,[47]--concludes that these
cards are Hindostanee.
The pack consists of eight suits, each suit containing two honours and
ten common cards--in all ninety-six cards. In all the suits the King
is mounted on an elephant; and in six, the Vizier, or second honour,
is on horseback; but in the blue suit,--the emblem or mark of which
is a red spot with a yellow centre--he rides a tiger; and in the
white suit,--the mark of which appears like a grotesque or fiendish
head,--he is mounted on a bull. The backs of all the cards are green.
The following are the colours of the _ground_ on which the figures are
painted in the several suits, together with the different marks by
which the suits and the respective value of the common cards were also
distinguished.
COLOURS. MARKS.
1. FAWN Something like a pineapple in a shallow cup.
2. BLACK A red spot, with a white centre.
3. BROWN A "tulwar," or sword.
4. WHITE A grotesque kind of head.
5. GREEN Something like a parasol without a handle, and with
two broken ribs sticking through the top.
6. BLUE A red spot, with a yellow centre.
7. RED A parallelogram with dots on it, as if to represent
writing (shortest side vertical).
8. YELLOW An oval.
On every one of the common cards there is also depicted, in addition
to the mark of their respective suits, something like a slender leaf,
tapering upwards, but with the top curving down. Of this pack of cards
I have nothing further to observe here than that if they are even a
hundred years old, they must have been preserved with great care; and
that I am inclined to think that the Bramin, who gave them to Capt.
Smith, had over-rated their antiquity and rarity in order to enhance
the value of his present.
In a second pack, consisting, like the preceding, of eight suits of
twelve cards each, the King appears seated on a throne; while the
Vizier, as in the former, is on horseback, except in three of the suits
where he appears mounted on an elephant, a single-humped camel, and a
bull. Though there be a difference between this pack and the former,
in the marks of some of the suits, there can be no doubt that the same
game might be played with each. In the pack now under consideration the
backs of all the cards are red. The following are the colours of the
ground and the marks of the several suits.
COLOURS. MARKS.
1. YELLOW Apparently a flower.
2. BLACK A red spot, with a white centre.
3. RED A "tulwar," or sword.
4. RED Man's head and shoulders.
5. BROWN (Unintelligible.)
6. GREEN A circular spot.
7. GREEN A parallelogram (longest side vertical)
8. YELLOW An oval.
The third pack of Hindostanee cards in the possession of the Royal
Asiatic Society, to whom it was presented by the late Sir John
Malcolm, is much more curious and interesting than either of the other
two previously noticed. It consists of _ten_ suits, of twelve cards
each; and the marks of the suits are the emblems of the ten Avatars,
or incarnations of Vichnou, one of the three principal divinities
in the religious system of the Hindoos. The King is represented by
Vichnou, seated on a throne, and in one or two instances accompanied
by a female; and the Vizier, as in most of the suits of the other two
packs, is mounted on a white horse. In every suit two attendants appear
waiting on the second as well as on the principal "honour." The backs
of all the cards in this pack are red; and the colours of the ground
and marks of the several suits are as follows:--[48]
COLOURS. MARKS.
1. RED A fish.
2. YELLOW A tortoise.
3. GOLD A boar.
4. GREEN A lion.
5. BROWNISH GREEN A man's head.
6. RED An axe.
7. BROWNISH GREEN An ape.
8. PUCE A goat or antelope.
9. BRICK RED A cattashal or umbrella.
10. GREEN A white horse, saddled and bridled.
The following description of the ten Avatars, or incarnations, of
Vichnou, as represented in a series of drawings,[49] will explain the
meaning of nearly every one of the marks of the ten suits of cards.
The only suits which do not exactly correspond with the Avatars, as
represented in the drawings, are those numbered 8 and 9, the emblems of
which are a goat and an umbrella. It is, however, to be observed that
Hindoo authors do not agree in their accounts of the different Avatars
of Vichnou, though they generally concur in representing them as ten in
number, that is, nine passed and one to come. It is also possible that
the goat--which appears couchant as if giving suck--and the umbrella,
which in the east is frequently the sign of regal dignity, may be
symbolical of the eighth and ninth Avatars in the description of the
drawings. Though the Bramin Dwarf, in the fifth Avatar of the drawings,
carries an umbrella, there can scarcely be a doubt that the Man's head,
in No. 5 of the cards, is the symbol of this Avatar.
THE TEN AVATARS OF VICHNOU.
1. MATSYAVATARA. The first Avatar of Vichnou, as a Fish; represented
as the body of a man with the tail of a fish. The human part is
coloured blue; the rest is white. In two of his four hands he holds the
_Chakra_, or _Soudarsana_, which here appears something like a quoit
with rays proceeding from it.[50] In the palm of another of his hands
the diamond--carré mystique--is displayed. According to the Bhagavat
Purana, the precious stone or diamond called _Castrala_, is a sort of
talisman which illuminates all things, and in which all things are
reflected. It is the perfect mirror of the world, and Vichnou generally
wears it on his breast, or holds it in the palm of that hand which is
raised in the act of benediction.
2. KOURMAVATARA. The second Avatar, as a Tortoise; the upper part of
the figure, man, the lower, tortoise. The _Chakra_ appears poised on
the fingers of one of the hands.
3. VARAHAVATARA. The third Avatar of Vichnou, as a _Verrat_, or wild
boar, to destroy the giant Hiranyakcha. Vichnou appears with the head
of a boar, but with the body and limbs of a man. In the cards, the head
of the boar is blue.
4. NARASINHAVATARA. The fourth Avatar of Vichnou, as a Lion, to destroy
the giant Hiranycasyapa. Vichnou appears with a lion's head, but with a
human body, holding the _Chakra_ in one of his hands.
5. VAMANAVATARA. The fifth Avatar of Vichnou, as a Bramin Dwarf, to
avenge the gods on the giant Bali. In one hand he holds a kind of
narrow-necked pot, with a spout to it, and in another a _cattashal_, or
umbrella.
6. PARASOU-RAMA. The sixth Avatar of Vichnou, as a Bramin, armed with
an axe, to chastise kings and warriors. The colour of the figure is
green, and in one of his hands he holds either a flower, or a kind of
leaf.
7. SRI-RAMA, or RAMA-ICHANDRA. The seventh Avatar of Vichnou, in the
family of the Kings of the race of the Sun, to avenge the gods and
men of the tyranny of Ravana, King of Lanka or Ceylon. The figure of
Vichnou in this Avatar, is blue or green; and he is seated on a couch
or throne with his wife Sita beside him, while monkeys appear offering
him adoration. In the cards, the colour of Vichnou is blue, and a
female shares his throne, which is very much like a font or shallow
bath. Monkeys also appear before him.
8. CHRISHNA. The Eighth Avatar of Vichnou, as an Infant suckled by his
mother Devaki. Rays of glory surround the heads of the mother and child.
9. BOUDDHA, the SON of MAYA. The ninth Avatar of Vichnou, who appears
richly dressed, seated in an attitude of meditation on a throne, the
back of which is of a shell-like form--"espèce de conque"--and is
adorned with Lotus flowers.
10. CALKI-AVATARA. The tenth, and future Avatar of Vichnou, as a Horse,
or Man-horse, armed with sword and buckler, to destroy the world at the
end of the present age. The figure has a human body, and a horse's head.
As there are different accounts of the incarnations of Vichnou, as
has been previously observed, the following is given with the view
of throwing a little more light on the subject: "Vichnou, the second
person in the Hindoo trinity, is said to have undergone nine successive
incarnations to deliver mankind from so many perilous situations. The
first, they say, was in the form of a lion; the second of a hog; the
third a tortoise; the fourth a serpent; the fifth that of a Bramin (a
dwarf, a foot and a half high); the sixth a monster, namely, half man
half lion; the seventh a dragon; the eighth a man born of a virgin;
and the ninth an ape. Bernier adds a tenth, which is to be that of a
great cavalier. (Voyage, vol. ii, p. 142.) A very particular and a very
different account of these transformations is given by Mr. Sonnerat
(Voyages, vol. i, p. 158), with curious representation of each of
them."[51] In this account we have both a lion, and a man-lion, which
are probably symbols of the same Avatar; and a dragon and a serpent,
also probably symbols of the same thing, though neither of them occur
in the cards, nor in the description of the drawings.
I shall now present the reader with a description of another pack
of Hindostanee cards, and of the game played with them: it forms
an article entitled 'Hindostanee Cards,' in the second volume of
the Calcutta Magazine, 1815; and is accompanied with two plates,
fac-similes of which are here given.
"The words _Gunjeefu_ and _Tas_ are used in Hindostanee to denote
either the game, or a pack of cards. I have in vain searched the
'Asiatic Researches,' 'Asiatic Annual Register,' Sir William Ouseley's
'Oriental Collections,' and the 'Oriental Repertory,' by Dalrymple, for
some account or description of the mode of playing the cards in use
among the natives of Hindostan; and further, from the total silence of
the French and English Encyclopædias, conclude that they have never
engaged the attention of any inquirer. A description of the gunjeefu,
or cards, used by the Moslems, may therefore be acceptable to our
readers.
"In the 'Dictionary, Hindostanee and English,' edited by the late Dr.
Hunter, the names of the eight suits are to be found under the word
_Taj_, the name of the first suit.
"The pack is composed of ninety-six cards, divided into eight suits.
In each suit are two court cards, the King, and the Wuzeer. The common
cards, like those of Europe, bear the spots from which the suits are
named, and are ten in number.
"Four suits are named superior,[52] and four the inferior[53] suits.
SUPERIOR SUITS. INFERIOR SUITS.
Taj.[54] Chung.
Soofed. Soorkh.
Shumsher. Burat.
Gholam. Quimash.
"Plate I represents the [honours of the] four superior suits, called
_Beshbur_; and Plate II, the inferior, _Kumbur_. The kings are easily
distinguished, and are here numbered from 1 to 8.
[Illustration: Plate I.]
[Illustration: Plate II.]
"In the superior suits, the ten follows next in value to the king and
wuzeer; and the ace is the lowest card. In the inferior suits, the ace
has precedence immediately after the wuzeer, then the deuce, and others
in succession, the ten being of least value.
"The game is played by three or six persons: when six play, three take
the superior, and three the inferior suits. The pack being divided
into parcels after the cards are well mixed, the players cut for the
deal; and he who cuts the highest card deals.[55] When three play, the
cards are dealt by fours. In the first and last round the cards are
exposed, and thus eight cards of each person's hand are known to the
adversaries. The cards are dealt from _right_ to _left_, the reverse of
the European mode.
"THE LEAD. When the game is played by _day_, he who holds the red king,
(_Soorkh_, the sun,) must lead that and any small card. Should he play
the king alone, it is seized by the next player. The adversaries throw
down each _two_ common cards, and the trick is taken up. When the
game is played by _night_, the white king, (_Soofed_, the moon,)
is led in like manner. The cards are then played out at the option of
him who leads, the adversaries throwing away their small cards, and
no attention is paid to the following suit, unless when one of the
adversaries, having a superior card of the suit led, chooses to play it
to gain the trick.
"In order to guard a second-rate card which may enable you hereafter
to recover the lead, it is customary to throw down a small one of that
suit, and call the card you are desirous to have played. With this
call the adversaries must comply. As in Whist, when the person who has
the lead holds none but winning cards, they are thrown down. After
the cards have been all played, the parties shuffle their tricks, and
the last winner, drawing a card, challenges one of his adversaries to
draw out any card from the heap before him, naming it the fourth or
fifth, &c. from the top or bottom. The winner of this trick in like
manner challenges his right-hand adversary. The number of cards in the
possession of each party is then counted, and those who have fewest are
obliged to purchase from an adversary to make up their deficiency of
complement. The greatest winner at the end of four rounds has the game.
"The following terms used in the game may be acceptable to those
who desire to understand it when played by natives: I think they
unequivocally prove that _Gunjeefu_ is of Persian or Arabian origin.
"Zubur-dust, the right-hand player.
Zer-dust, the left-hand player.
Zurb, a trick.
Ser, a challenge.
Ser-k'hel, the challenging game.
Ekloo, a sequence of three cards.
Khurch, the card played to one led; not a winning card.
K´hel java, to lay down the winning card at the end of a deal.
Chor, the cards won at the end of a deal; the sweep.
Ghulutee, a misdeal.
Wuruq, a card.
Durhum-kurna, to shuffle.
Wuruq-turashna, to cut the cards.
"From my observation of the game when played, I do not think it
sufficiently interesting to cause its being preferred by Europeans to
the cards in vogue in Europe. The number of the suits are too great,
and the inconvenient form of the cards (the size and shape of which are
represented by the plates[56]) are great objections. The Hindoostanee
cards are made of paper, well varnished; the figures appropriately
painted, and the ground and backs of every suit of one colour. The
Slave standing before the King in No. 3, is the figure used as the
spot or crest on all the common cards of that suit.... The tradition
regarding the origin of the Hindoostanee cards is, that they were
invented by a favorite _sultana_, or queen, to wean her husband from a
bad habit he had acquired of pulling or eradicating his beard."
With respect to the word _Gunjeefu_, which, according to the preceding
account, appears to be a general name for cards, I am informed that
it is of Persian origin, and that it signifies both a pack of cards
and the game. In Bengal, cards are more generally known by the
name of _Tas_, which is a Hindoo word, than that by _Gunjeefu_, or
_Gangēefah_, as it is otherwise written. From the reference, in the
preceding account, to the 'Dictionary, Hindoostanee and English,'
edited by the late Dr. Hunter,[57] I am inclined to think that _Taj_
and _Tas_ have the same signification, with reference to cards; and
that the only difference between them consists in the pronunciation and
mode of spelling. Now, the word _Taj_ is said to signify a crown; but
if it be also used figuratively for a king, the wearer of a crown--just
as "crown" is figuratively used to signify empire or regal power--the
Hindoo name for cards would be synonymous with "Kings." That cards
were known in England by the name of the "Four Kings" has been already
shown; and if my speculations on the terms _Chartæ_ and _Naipes_ be
correct, it was by a name originally signifying four kings, or four
viceroys, that cards were first known in Europe.
With regard to the game described in the preceding account, it appears
to bear some resemblance to that which the French call "l'Ombre à
trois,"--three-handed Ombre.[58] In both games the suits appear to be
considered as ranged in two divisions: in the Hindostanee game, as the
Red and the White; and in the European, as the Red and the Black. In
the Hindostanee game there are eight suits, and six or three players;
and when three play, the cards are dealt by fours. In the European
game of four suits and forty cards--the tens, nines, and eights being
omitted--there are three players, and the cards are dealt by threes.
A person who can play at Ombre will scarcely fail to perceive several
other points of similarity between the two games. From the terms used
in the game of Ombre--Spadillo, Basto, Matador, Punto, &c.--there can
scarcely be a doubt that the other nations of Western Europe derived
their knowledge of it from the Spaniards. The Hon. Daines Barrington,
in his 'Observations on the Antiquity of Card Playing in England,'
derives the names of the game from the Spanish, "hombre," a man; and
there is reason to believe that it was one of the oldest games at
cards played at in Europe. If the game of cards were introduced into
Europe by the Arabs, it is in Spain that we might first expect to find
them. Pietro della Valle, in his Travels in the East, between 1614 and
1626, speaks of the people playing at cards, though differing from
ours in the figures and number of suits; and Niebuhr, in his Travels,
also speaks of the Arabians playing at cards, and says that the game
is called Lab-el-Kammer.[59] It is, however, to be observed, that the
game of cards is not once mentioned in the Arabian Nights; and from
this silence it may be concluded that at the time when those tales
were compiled card-playing was not a popular pastime in Arabia. The
compilation, it is believed, is not earlier than about the end of
the fifteenth century, though many of the tales are of a much higher
antiquity.
Leaving out of consideration the pack of ten suits, with the emblems of
the ten incarnations of Vichnou, as being of a mythological character,
and probably not in common use for the purposes of gaming, it is
evident from the other three packs, of eight suits each, that the cards
known in Hindostan are not uniform in the marks of the different
suits, though it is obvious that any game,--depending on sequences and
the conventional value of the several cards,--which can be played with
one of the packs, may be also played with either of the other two. The
difference in the marks is, indeed, much less than is to be observed
in old French, Spanish, and German cards, which present so many
differences as to render it impossible to derive them from one original
type. The mere mark or emblem, whatever it might originally signify,
appears to have had no specific meaning or value, beyond what might be
assigned to it by the conventional rules of the game; whether it were a
sword or a chalice, a club or a piece of money, a heart or a diamond, a
green leaf or a hawk's bell, in playing and counting the game, it was a
"pip," and nothing more.
Whether the two packs of eight suits each, in the possession of the
Royal Asiatic Society, are considered by the natives of Hindostan
as consisting of two divisions of four suits each, as in the pack
described in the extract from the 'Calcutta Magazine,' I have not
been able to ascertain. In all the three packs the sword is to be
found as the mark of one of the suits; and the _soofed_ and _soorkh_
of the one pack--silver coin and gold coin, figuratively the moon and
the sun--I consider to be represented by the circular marks in the
other two; and the oval in these is not unlike the mark of the suit
named _Quimash_--merchandise--in the former. The mark of the suit
_Burat_, see Plate II, No. 7--which is said to mean a royal diploma or
assignment, corresponds very nearly with a parallelogram containing
dots, as if meant for writing, in the pack formerly belonging to Capt.
D. Cromline Smith; but though a parallelogram--crossed by two lines,
and with the longest side vertical--also occurs in the other pack, its
agreement with the _Burat_ is by no means so apparent. The marks of
the suits _Taj_, a Crown, and _Chung_, a Harp.[60] (see Plate I, fig.
1, and Plate II, fig. 5,) I am unable to recognise, either by name or
figure, in the other two packs; though I am inclined to think that, in
one of them, the place of the _Taj_ is supplied by a kind of fruit, and
in the other by a flower. It will be observed that, in the plate, the
mark of the suit called _Chung_, a harp, is a bird. In the other two
packs, the suits which I consider to be the substitutes of the _Chung_
have a mark which I have not been able to make out; but in one of them
the Vizier, as in the _Chung_, is mounted on a single-humped camel.
In the suit called _Gholam_, a slave--Plate I, fig. 4--I cannot make
out what is intended for the mark,--whether the _Mahut_, who appears
guiding the elephant, or the kind of mace carried by the Vizier;
whatever may be the mark, I consider the suit to be represented by that
with a white ground in Capt. D. C. Smith's cards, the mark of which is
a grotesque head, as in both suits the Vizier is mounted on a bull. The
corresponding suit in the other pack I conceive to be the one which has
for its mark a man's head.
With respect to the marks of the several suits, in the different
packs of Hindostanee cards, previously described,--what objects they
graphically represent, what they might have been intended to signify
by the person who devised them, and what allegorical meanings may
have assigned to them by others,--much might be said; and a writer
of quick imagination, and hieroglyphic wit, like Court de Gebelin,
might readily find in them not only a summary of all the knowledge of
the Hindoos--theological, moral, political, and scientific--but also
a great deal more than they either knew or dreamt of. As I feel my
inability to perform such a task, or rather to enjoy such pleasures of
imagination; and as the present work does not afford space for so wide
a discursus, I shall confine my observations to such marks as appear
to have, both in their form and meaning, the greatest affinity with
the marks to be found on early European cards. The marks in the pack
consisting of ten suits, representing the incarnations of Vichnou, I
shall only incidentally refer to, as I am of opinion that those cards
are not such as either are or were generally used for the purposes
of gaming, but are to be classed with those emblematic cards which
have, at different periods, been devised in Europe for the purpose
of insinuating knowledge into the minds of ingenious youth by way of
pastime.
In referring to any of the marks to be found in the three eight-suit
packs of Hindostanee cards, which appear to be intended for the
purposes of play only, it seems unnecessary to specify the particular
pack to which they belong, as my object is merely to call attention to
the apparent agreement between some of the marks of Hindostanee cards,
and those which are either known to have been the marks of the earliest
European cards, or are to be found on such old cards as are still
preserved in public libraries, or in the collections of individuals.
In the early European cards, which have cups, swords, pieces of money,
and clubs or maces for the marks of the four suits,[61] the sword and
piece of money of the Hindostanee cards are readily identified; and
if we are to suppose that in these cards certain emblems of Vichnou
were formerly represented--but which are not to be found either on the
ordinary Playing Cards, or on those displaying the ten incarnations of
Vichnou--it would not be difficult to account for the cups, and clubs
or maces; for, according to Dr. Frederick Creutzer,[62] the mace or
war club is frequently to be seen in one of the hands of Vichnou; and
Count von Hammer-Purgstal remarks, that "the sword, the club, and the
cup, are frequent emblems in the Eastern Ritual."[63] As the marks in
European suits, cups, or chalices, swords, money, and clubs, have been
supposed to represent the four principal classes of men in a European
state, to wit, Churchmen; Swordmen, or feudal nobility; Monied men,
merchants or traders; and Club-men, workmen, or labourers,--it is just
as easy to run a parallel in the four superior suits of one of the
packs of Hindostanee cards, given in Plate I; there may be found _Taj_,
a crown, royalty; _Soofed_, silver money, merchants; _Shumsher_, a
sword, fighting men, seapoys; and _Gholam_, a slave, the coolies both
of hill and plain. It may not be unnecessary here to observe that the
four great historical castes of the Hindoos are, 1, Bramins, priests;
2, Chetryas, soldiers; 3, Vaisyas, tradesmen and artificers; and 4,
Sudras, slaves, and the lowest class of labourers. Of these four
castes the Bramins alone remain unmixed; the other three, as distinct
castes, exist only in name, for they have become so intermixed, that
the subdivisions can neither be ascertained nor reckoned by the learned
pundits themselves.[64]
In the oldest stencilled, or printed, European cards, which are
probably of as early a date as the year 1440, the marks of the suits
are bells, hearts, leaves, and acorns; and in the Hindostanee cards
we find a leaf or a flower, as the mark of one of the suits; and I am
inclined to think that, in the latter, the figures of the oval, and of
that which appears something like a pineapple in a shallow cup, were
the types of the bells and the acorns. When those marks are compared,
without reference to their being representations of specific objects of
which the mind has already a preconceived idea, the general agreement
of their forms is, to the eye, more apparent. For the heart, I have not
been able to discover any corresponding mark in the Hindostanee cards.
Should I be told that the form of the heart might be suggested by that
of the leaf, I have to observe that the form of the leaf in Hindostanee
cards, is not the same as that which occurs in European, and that in
the latter, the colour of the so-called heart appears always to have
been red.
Between the marks of the suits on old French cards,--Cœur, Carreau,
Trèfle, and Pique,--and those to be found on Hindostanee cards, I
shall not venture to make any direct comparison. It, however, may be
observed that the form of the Pique--the spade in English cards--is
almost precisely the same as that of the leaf in other European packs;
and that the Trèfle--the club, in English cards--in its outline bears
a considerable likeness to the acorn. Those who please may derive the
Carreau, or diamond, from the _Castrala_, or mystic diamond, worn on
the breast, or held in the palm of the hand of Vichnou; it does not,
however, occur as the mark of a suit in any of the Hindostanee cards
that have come under my observation; and the mark to which it bears the
greatest resemblance is that of the suit _Burat_, as shown in Plate II,
No. 7. An examination of a greater variety of Hindostanee cards, and
more extensive knowledge of the names and significations of the marks
of the suits, and of the different games played, would probably lead to
the discovery of more points of resemblance than I have been able to
perceive.
The different things signified by marks, apparently agreeing in their
general forms, on Hindostanee and European cards, may be partly
accounted for on the following grounds, which will also in some degree
serve to explain the difference, both in form and name, of the marks of
the suits in different packs of old European cards.
Graphic forms of all kinds, whether symbolic, or positive
representations of specific objects, which are readily understood,
both in their figurative meaning and direct signification, by the
people with whom they originated, are, when brought into a different
country without their explanations, often interpreted by that people
according to their knowledge and opinions; and forms for which they
have no corresponding originals, or which they fail to identify, are
referred to objects of similar shape with which they are familiar,
and are called by their names. Similar changes in the meaning of
symbolic figures also take place with the same people, in consequence
of the original meaning becoming obsolete, through change of customs
and opinions, in the course of time. In this manner a figure of the
horned Isis, with the young Horus in her lap, appears to have been
taken for a representation of the Virgin Mary, with the crescent
moon on her head, nursing the infant Jesus; and thus the figures of
Jupiter and Minerva have passed for those of Adam and Eve. In the
sixteenth century it appears that in Italy the suit of Bastoni--clubs,
or maces, proper--was also called _Colonne_, pillars; and the suit of
Danari--money--_Specchi_, mirrors;[65] merely because the club or mace
as depicted on the suits, bore some resemblance to a slender pillar,
and that the form of Danari, like that of an ancient mirror, was
circular. Among the pitmen in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
the diamonds on the cards are frequently called _Picks_, from their
similarity to the head of a pick, the tool with which they dig the
coals; a writer like Court de Gebelin, might discover in this connexion
between picks and "black diamonds" "a type with a pair of handles." It
may be here observed, that the suit which the French term piques, is
that which we, improperly, call spades.
But, even admitting the agreement, both in figure and signification,
of several of the marks of the suits in early European cards, and
those which occur in the cards now used in Hindostan, it may be said
that this fact by no means proves either that cards were invented in
the East, or that the marks of suits on the Hindostanee cards were
actually the models of those resembling them which are to be found on
early European cards; for cards might find their way into the East from
Europe as well as into Europe from the East. When St. Francis Xavier
was in the East Indies,--from 1541 to 1552,--card-playing was a common
amusement with the European residents and traders;[66] and it is very
likely that the first Portuguese ship that arrived there, about half a
century before, had a pack of cards on board. That European cards were
sent to the East, among other articles of merchandise, towards the end
of the sixteenth century, appears evident from a passage in a narrative
of the first voyage of the English, on a private account, begun by
Captain George Raymond, and finished by Captain James Lancaster;[67]
and we learn from Sir Alexander Burnes, that commerce has imported
cards into the Holy City of Bokhara, that the pack consists of
thirty-six cards, and that the games are strictly Russian.[68]
Looking, however, at all the circumstances,--the probability of Cards
having been suggested by Chess, the names _Chartæ_ and _Naipes_, the
marks to be found on them, and the tradition of their having been
known in Hindostan from a very early period,--the balance of evidence
appears decidedly in favour of the conclusion that cards were invented
in the East. The writer of an article on Cards, in No. xlviii of the
'Foreign Quarterly Review,' previously referred to, speaks confidently
of the great antiquity of cards in Hindostan, but does not give any
authorities for the fact. "We know," he says, "that the Tamuli have had
cards from time immemorial; and they are said to be of equal antiquity
with the Brahmins, who unquestionably possess them still, and claim to
have invented them." The statement of the Bramin who gave the cards
to Captain D. Cromline Smith, though certainly not true with respect
to that individual pack, may yet be received as confirmatory of the
traditional evidence in favour of cards generally having been known in
Hindostan from a very early period.[69]
Playing Cards appear to have been known from an early period in China.
In the Chinese dictionary, entitled _Ching-tsze-tung_, compiled by
Eul-koung, and first published A.D. 1678, it is said that the cards
now known in China as _Teen-tsze-pae_, or dotted cards, were invented
in the reign of Seun-ho, 1120; and that they began to be common in the
reign of Kaou-tsung, who ascended the throne in 1131.[70]--According
to tradition, they were devised for the amusement of Seun-ho's
numerous concubines. M. Abel Remusat, probably on the authority of
the Ching-tsze-tung, has also observed that cards were invented by the
Chinese in 1120.[71] Mons. Leber, however, considers it to be more
likely that they got their first cards from Hindostan; and that, like
the Europeans, they merely changed or modified the types, and invented
new games.
The general name for cards in China is _Che-pae_, which literally
signifies "paper tickets." At first they are said to have been called
_Ya-pae_, bone or ivory tickets, from the material of which they were
made. A pack of dotted cards consists of thirty-two pieces, and the
marks--small circular dots of red and black--are placed, alternately,
at two of the corners; for instance, in a card containing eight
dots, four are placed in one corner and four in the other diagonally
opposite to it. Ten of those cards are classed in pairs; the first
pair are called _Che-tsun_,--"the most honorable,"--and are superior
to all the others; these may be considered as coat cards, as the one
contains the figure of a woman, and the other that of a man; both these
cards are also marked with black and red dots,--that of the woman
with six, and that of the man with twelve. The second pair are called
_Tien-pae_,--"celestial cards;" each contains twenty-four dots of
black and red, corresponding with the twenty-four terms in the Chinese
year. The third pair are called _Te-pae_,--"terrestrial cards;" each
contains four red dots corresponding with the four cardinal points of
the compass. The fourth pair are called _Jin-pae_,--"human cards;" each
contains sixteen red dots, relating to benevolence, justice, order,
and wisdom in a four-fold degree. The fifth pair are called _Ho-pae_;
each card contains eight black dots, relating to a supposed principle
of harmony in nature extending itself towards all points of the
compass. The remaining twenty-two cards have distinct names, which it
is needless here to give: the aggregate of the dots upon them is said
to have reference to the number of the stars.
The cards most commonly used in China, are those called
_Tseen-wan-che-pae_,--"a thousand times ten thousand cards." There
are thirty cards in a pack; namely, three suits of nine cards each,
and three single cards which are superior to all the others. The name
of one of the suits is _Kew-ko-wan_; that is, the nine ten-thousands,
or myriads of _Kwan_--strings of beads, shells, or money. The name of
the other suit is _Kew-ko-ping_,--"nine units of cakes;" and that of
the third is _Kew-ko-so_,--"nine units of chains." The names of the
three single cards are, _Tseen-wan_, a thousand times ten thousand;
_Hung-hwa_, the red flower; and _Pih-hwa_, the white flower.
In the annexed specimens of Chinese cards, Nos. 1 and 2 are the first
and third of the suit of nine myriads of Kwan; Nos. 3 and 4 are the one
and the three of the suit of cakes; No. 5 is the one of the suit of
chains; and No. 6 is that of the three superior cards, which is called
the white flower.
[Illustration: No. 1.]
[Illustration: No. 2.]
[Illustration: No. 3.]
[Illustration: No. 4.]
[Illustration: No. 5.]
[Illustration: No. 6.]
Besides those above described, the Chinese have several other varieties
of cards: one pack or set is called _Pih-tsze-pae_, the hundred boys'
cards; another, _Tseen-wan-jin-pae_,--"a thousand times ten-thousand
mens' names cards," containing the names of persons famous in Chinese
history; and a third has the same name as Chinese Chess, _Keu-ma-paou_,
chariots, horses, and guns. This latter name corroborates what has been
previously said about the probability of the game of cards having been
suggested by that of chess.
The marks to be found on Chinese cards scarcely afford a gleam of
light by which we might judge of their relation to the cards of
other countries: in a pack of such as are chiefly used in Cochin
China, I have observed the form of the diamond nearly the same as it
appears on English cards; and in a pack of the Chinese cards called
Tseen-wan-che-pae, the mark of the suit of Nine Cakes is nearly the
same as that of the old Italian _Danari_, which Galeottus Martius--in
his treatise 'De Doctrina promiscua,' written about 1488--considers to
have been meant for a loaf.
The cards commonly used in China, are much narrower than ours; an idea
of their size may be formed from the specimens given, making allowance
for a small margin of white paper all round, but rather wider at
the top and bottom than at the sides. The Chinese name for a card,
considered singly, or as one of the pieces of a pack or set, appears to
be _Shen_, a fan.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive, tom. ii, chap. xii. Des
Principes des Sciences et des Arts, disposé en forme de Jeux. Trevoux,
1704.
[2] Ita vita est hominum quasi cum ludas Tesseris:
Si illud, quod maximè opus est jactu, non cadit,
Illud quod cecidit fortè, id arte ut corrigas.
TERENT. _Adelph._ act. iv, sc. 7.
"Ludo Tesserarum Plato vitam comparavit, in quo et jacere utilia
oportet, et jacientem uti benè iis quæ ceciderunt."--PLUT. OP. MOR.
_Epist. ad Paccium._--Etudes historiques sur les Cartes à Jouer, par M.
C. Leber, p. 63.
[3] In a paper entitled, l'Origine du Jeu de Piquet, trouvé dans
l'Histoire de France sous le règne de Charles VII. Printed in the
Mémoires pour l'Histoire des Sciences, &c.--Trévoux; in the vol. for
May, 1720, p. 934-968.
[4] In a dissertation "Du Jeu de Tarots, où l'on traite de son
origine, où l'on explique ses allégories, et où l'on fait voir qu'il
est la source de nos Cartes modernes à jouer," &c. This dissertation
is contained in his Monde primitif, analysé et comparé avec le Monde
moderne.--Dissertations mêlées, tom. i, p. 365-394. Paris, 1781. It is
not unlikely that he was led to make this discovery from the notices
of a _philosophic_ game of the ancient Egyptians, quoted by Meursius,
in his treatise De Ludis Græecorum, p. 53. Lugduni Batavorum, 1622. A
summary of Court de Gebelin's conceits on the subject of Tarots is to
be found in Peignot's Analyse de Recherches sur les Cartes à jouer, p.
227-237.
[5] He shall have a bell, that's Abel;
And by it standing one whose name is Dee,
In a rug gown; there's D and Rug, that's Drug;
And right anenst him a dog snarling _er_;
There's _Drugger, Abel Drugger_. That's his sign.
And here's now Mystery and Hieroglyphic!
_The Alchymist_, act ii.
[6] See an image of Isis, horned, with the infant Horus on her knee;
and note, that antiquaries have not settled why the Virgin Mary is
sometimes represented with the crescent on her head. Isis was the
protectress of seafaring people; and her image, as we learn from
Petronius and other writers, was frequently placed in ships.
[7] The _hand_ occurs frequently in Egyptian hieroglyphics: it would be
superfluous to tell the learned reader what it means. The hand holding
a hammer, in the hieroglyphic usually known as the Blacksmiths' Coat of
Arms, is sufficiently explained by the motto,
"By Hammer and Hand,
All Arts do stand."
[8] Versuch, den Ursprung der Spielkarten, die Einführung des
Leinenpapieres, und den Anfang der Holzschneidekunst in Europa zu
erforschen. Von J. G. I. Breitkopf. 4to. Leipzig, 1784.
[9] Researches into the History of Playing Cards; with Illustrations of
the Origin of Printing and Engraving on Wood. By Samuel Weller Singer.
4to. London, 1816.
[10] Tome deuxième de l'année 1836. 'Origine Française de la Boussole
et des Cartes à jouer.' Fragmens d'un ouvrage sous presse, intitulé,
'Histoire du Drapeau, des Couleurs, et des Insignes de la Monarchie
Française,' &c. Par M. Rey. Livre X--Universalité des Fleurs de Lis.
[11] Etudes historiques sur les Cartes à jouer. Par M. C. Leber.
Originally printed in the sixteenth volume of the 'Mémoires de la
Société royale des Antiquaires de France,' and subsequently published
separately. Paris, 1842.
[12] "... Ce n'est pas l'affaire de quelques années, ni des travaux,
ni des sacrifices d'une seule vie, que de rassembler tant de chétifs
débris, de pièces égarées, souillées, mutilées, informes, et dont
la découverte n'est plus souvent qu'un caprice du hasard, une bonne
fortune plutôt qu'une bonne action. Il faut donc attendre que cette
œuvre du temps et de la persévérance soit accomplie."--Etudes
Historiques, p. 60.
[13] Catalogue des Livres imprimés, Manuscrits, Estampes, Dessins,
et Cartes à jouer, composant le Bibliothèque de M. C. Leber, tom. i,
p. 238. Paris, 1839. This library, the Catalogue of which consists
of three volumes, now belongs to the city of Rouen. The cards are
described in the first volume, pp. 237-48.
[14] With the Latins, Ludere par impar; with the Greeks, αρτιαζειν;
ραιζειν, αρτια η περιττα. "Nempe ludentes, sumptis in manu talis,
fabis, nucibus, amygdalis, interdum etiam nummis, interrogantes
alteram divinare jubebant, 'αρτια η περιττα'; paria, nempe, an imparia
haberent."--Meursius, de Ludis Græcorum, p. 5, edit. 1622.
[15] Fortune is a _parvenue_, in the Olympian circle,--of great means,
but no family:
Di chi figluola fusse, ò di che seme
Nascesse, non si sa; ben si sa certo
Ch'infino à Giove sua potentia teme.
MACCHIAVELLI, _Capitolo di Fortuna_.
[16] Dr. Thomas Hyde is inclined to think that the game of Astragali
was known from the time of the general Deluge.--De Ludis Orientalibus.
Oxon. 1694.
[17] The ancient Greek game of Astragali or Astragalismus--the Tali of
the Romans--appears to have been played in a manner similar to that
described in the text. The names given to the different casts are to be
found in Meursius, De Ludis Græcorum, under the word ΑΣΤΡΑΓΑΛΙΣΜΟΣ.
[18] Πεσσοισι προπαροιθε θυραων θυμον ἐτερπον,
Ἡμενοι ἐν ῥινοισι βοων οὑς ἐκτανον ἁυτοι.--_Odyss._ A. 107.
The word used by Homer, ρεσσοι,--which properly means the
pebbles or pieces employed in the game,--is here translated _tables_; a
term, which having now become nearly obsolete as signifying draughts,
may be used to denote an ancient cognate game.
It might be plausibly urged by a commentator fond of discovering
Homer's covert meanings, that the poet intended to censure the games
of Astragalismus and Petteia,--the former as a cause of strife, and
the latter as a fitting amusement for idle and dissipated persons,
like the suitors of Penelope. In the twenty-third book of the Iliad,
v. 87, Patroclus is represented as having killed, when a boy, though
unintentionally, a companion with whom he had quarrelled when playing
at Astragali or Tali:
... παιδα κατεκτανον Ἀμφιδαμαντος,
Νηπιος, οὐκ ἐθελων, ἀμφ' ἀστραγαλοισι χολωθεις.
It is not unlikely that an ancient piece of sculpture, in the British
Museum,--representing a boy biting the arm of his companion, with whom
he has quarrelled at Tali--relates to this passage.
[19] See a work by the late Mr. James Christie--more generally known
to the world as an auctioneer than as a man of learning and of great
research--entitled "An Enquiry into the ancient Greek game supposed to
have been invented by Palamedes antecedent to the Siege of Troy; with
Reasons for believing the Game to have been known from remote antiquity
in China, and progressively improved into the Chinese, Indian, Persian,
and European Chess." London, 1801.
[20] Julius Pollux, Onomasticon, lib. ix, cap. 7.
[21] "As the military groundwork of the game of cards, and its
similarity to chess, cannot be denied; so a closer examination of this
affinity may readily lead to the origin of the change in their figures
and colours."--Breitkopf, Ueber den Ursprung der Spielkarten, s. 30.
[22] "Le traducteur du Poëme de la Vielle, en décrivant les Echecs,
s'exprime ainsi;
'La Reyne, que nous nommons Fierge,
Tient de Venus, et n'est pas Vierge;
Aimable est et amoureuse.'" &c.
--L'Origine du Jeu des Echecs, par Mons. Freret. Hist. de l'Académie
des Inscriptions, tom. v, p. 255.
[23] "Comme c'est un jeu militaire, il y a dans chaque couleur un roi,
un officier supérieur ou capitaine, nommé _Ober_, et un bas-officier
appelé _Unter_. On appelait encore de nos jours dans l'Empire, où
les mots François ne sont pas en vogue, les officiers supérieurs
_Oberleute_, et les bas-officiers _Unterleute_"--Heineken, Idée
Générale d'une Collection d'Estampes, p. 241. Leipsic, 1771.
[24] It would appear that the etymology of this name was a matter of
great uncertainty even among people of oriental race. According to
some, it was _Sad-rengh_, the _hundred turns_, or wiles of the players;
according to others, it was _Sad-rangi_, the hundred vexations of the
game. A third derivation was from _Shesh-rengh_, _six colours_, as if
each of the six orders of pieces had been distinguished by a separate
colour.--Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus. Par. 1. Historia Shahiludii, cap.
De Nomine Shatrangi. Oxon. 1694.
[25] That the suits of cards were formerly distinguished by an emblem
which was suggestive of a particular colour, as well as representing a
particular form, is certain. The Germans still call two of their suits
_Roth_ and _Grün_--red and green--and the emblems are a heart and a
leaf.
[26] Observations on the Antiquity of Card-playing in England. In the
Archæologia, vol. viii.
[27] "Edward the First, when Prince of Wales, served nearly five years
in Syria, and therefore, whilst military operations were suspended,
must naturally have wished some sedentary amusement. Now, the Asiatics
scarcely ever change their customs: and as they play at cards, though
in many respects different from ours, it is not improbable that Edward
might have been taught this game, _ad quatuor reges_, whilst he
continued so long in this part of the globe."--Archæol. viii, p. 135.
[28] "Après souper venoient en place les beaulx Evangiles de
bois, c'est-à-dire force tabliers, ou le beau flux, ung, deux,
trois."--Rabelais, livre i, chap. 22.
[29] The following verses relating to this point are quoted by Peignot,
in his Analyse de Recherches sur les Cartes à Jouer, from a poem
intituled "La Magdeleine au Désert de la Sainte-Baume en Provence,
Poëme spirituel et chrétien, par le P. Pierre de St. Louis, religieux
Carme." Lyons, 1668.
"Voila quant à l'église: allons à la maison
Pour voir après cela si ma rime a raison.
Les livres que j'y voy de diverse peinture,
Sont les LIVRES DES ROYS, non pas de l'Escriture.
J'y remarque au dedans différentes couleurs,
Rouge aux Carreaux, aux Cœurs, noir aux Piques, aux Fleurs;
Avecque ces beaux Roys, je vois encore des Dames,
De ces pauvres maris les ridicules femmes.
Battez, battez les bien, battez, battez les tous,
N'épargnez pas les Roys, les Dames, ni les FOUS."
[30] "The _b_ and _v_ in Persian are constantly used for each other;
one instance will suffice--the plural of _na-eeb_, a viceroy, is
equally pronounced _nu-vaub_ and _nu-baub_, or, according to our
pronunciation, _nabob_."--A Personal Narrative of a Journey from India
to England, by Captain the Hon. George Keppel, vol. ii, p. 89. Second
edit. 1827.
[31] "Naipe, carton, &c. Tamarid quiere que sea nombre Arabigo, y
lo mismo el Brocense; pero comunamente se juzga que se los dio este
nombre por la primer cifra que se las puso, que fue una N y una P, con
que se significaba el nombre de su inventor, Nicolao Pepin: y de ahi
con pequeña corrupcion se dixo Naipe."--Diccionario de la Academia
Españolo, edit. 1734.
[32] Istoria della Citta di Viterbo, da Feliciano Bussi, p. 213. Roma,
1743. The passage relating to cards appears to have been first pointed
out by Leber, in his Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p.
43. "Though we have no information respecting the precise date of
Covelluzzo's birth or death," says Mons. Leber, in a note at p. 17
of Mons. Duchesne's Précis Historique, "it is yet certain that this
chronicler, whose name is properly Giovanni de Juzzo de Covelluzzo,
wrote in the fifteenth century, and that what he relates about cards
being brought into Viterbo in 1379, was extracted from the chronicle of
Nicholas de Covelluzzo, one of his ancestors, who, as well as himself,
was an inhabitant of Viterbo, and who possibly might have resided there
at the period when cards were first introduced."
[33] Mahmoud, the Gasnevide, first invaded Hindostan in A.D. 999.
[34] "Χαρταριον; Gallicum, _quartier_; scutulum quadratum.
Extat. apud Codinum de Offic. aulæ Constantinop. χαρτιον, idem
quod χαρταριον."--Meursii Glossarium Græco-Barbarum, 4to, Lugd.
Batavor., 1605.--_Quartier de bois._ A quarter, or square piece of
timber.--Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary.
[35] "_Cayer_. A quire of written paper; a piece of a written book,
divided into equal parts."--Cotgrave. The _cayer_ appears to have been
synonymous with the _pecia_ of monkish writers. It may be observed that
from _chartar_, a Persian word literally signifying '_four-strings_,'
the Rev. Stephen Weston has traced the descent of κιθαρα _cithara_;
_chitarra;_ and _guitar_. To these derivates the old English _gittern_
may be added."--Specimens of the Conformity of the European Languages,
especially the English, with the Oriental languages, especially the
Persian. By Stephen Weston, B. D. 12mo, 1802.
[36] It may be here noted that the word _Wuruk_ or _Wuruq_, used by the
Moslems in Hindostan to signify a card, signifies also the _leaf_ of a
tree, a _leaf_ of paper, being in the latter sense identical with the
Latin _folium_. See Richardson's Arabic Dictionary, word "Card;" and
the word "_Wuruq_"' in the list of terms used at the game of cards as
played at Hindostan, given in a subsequent page.
[37] Should I be told that the correct word for "_four_" in
Hindostanee, is _chatur_, _chatta_, or _cattah_,--not _chartah_,--and
be required to account for the ρ in χαρτης, supposing the latter word
to be derived from the same root, I should answer by giving a case in
point--the derivation of _quartus_ from _quatuor_,--leaving others to
assign the reason. I subjoin here, by way of contrast, a different
etymology of _carta_--Epistola, a letter. "Quieren algunos que este
nombre Castellano, Carta, se derivasse de la ciudad de Carta insigne
por aver sido cuna de la reyna Dido, y atribuyen à esta ciudad la
etimologia, por aver sido la primera que dio materia en que las Cartas
se escriviessen."--Seneca impugnado de Seneca, &c. Por Don Alonzo Nuñez
de Castro, p. 220, 4to. Madrid, 1661.--Is there any evidence to show
that the form of ancient Carthage was _Square_?
[38] "Im Arabischen heist _Nabaa_: er hat einen leisen Ton, wie die
Zauberer thun, von sich gegeben; davon _Naba_, die Zaubertrommel, und
_Nabi_, ein Prophet, Wahrsager, herkömmt. Eichhorn erklärt, in der
Einleitung zum A. Testamente, die hebräischen Worte _Nabi_, Nabüm,
durch göttliche Eingebung, und durch Leute, die durch göttliche
Eingebung handeln."--Ueber den Ursprung der Spielkarten, s. 15.
[39] Heineken, Idée Générale d'une complète Collection d'Estampes, p.
240. Leipsic, 1771.
[40] The Abbé Bullet, previous to the appearance of his little book on
Cards, in 1757, had commenced the publication of a Celtic Dictionary.
In the former there are many traces of his mind having acquired a bent
from his Celtic researches. He finds the origin of the term _as_ or
_ace_ in the Celtic _as_; and in the same language he finds the true
meaning of the names of the Queens of Clubs and Hearts, Argine and
Judith. Argine is formed of _ar_, la, the, and _gin_, belle, beautiful;
and Judith is a corruption of Judic,--which is formed of _jud_, a
queen, and _dyc_, twice. Both those queens, according to his fancy,
are intended to represent Anne of Bretagne, wife of Charles VIII and
Louis XII. According to Père Daniel, Argine is an anagram of Regina,
and is meant for Mary of Anjou, wife of Charles VII; and Judith is not
the heroine of the Old Testament, but the wife of Louis-le-Debonnaire.
Though those doctors disagree, yet each appears to have _equally good_
reasons for his opinions. The consequence is that we can put no faith
in either.
[41] The Abbé Rive, grounding his opinion on an interpolated passage
in Guterry's French translation of Guevara's Epistles, ascribes the
invention of cards to the Spaniards, and places it about the year
1330. With respect to the origin of the name Naipes, he adopts the N
P etymology of the Spanish Academy. The Abbé's _brochure_ on cards is
entitled 'Eclaircissements Historiques et Critiques sur l'Invention des
Cartes à jouer.' Paris, 1780.
[42] "MAPPA, dit Papias, _togilla_, (c-est-à-dire, touaille,
nappe); MAPA etiam dicitur PICTURA vel FORMA LUDORUM, unde dicitur
MAPAMUNDI. Un vieux glossaire latin-français de la Bibliothèque de
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, cité par Ducange, reproduit et explique
ainsi ce passage précieux, en le traduisant: 'MAPAMUNDI, mapemunde;
et dicitur a MAPA, nappe ou picture, ou form de jeux.'"--Mélanges
d'Origines Etymologiques et de Questions Grammaticales. Par M. Eloi
Johanneau, p. 40. Paris, 1818.
[43] The description alluded to will be found at p. 41.
[44] The sex of the Company appears to be a matter of interest even
with the ladies of Affghanistan. "At night the ladies of Mahomed Shah
Khan, and other chiefs who were travelling in our company, invited
Mrs. Eyre to dinner. She found them exceedingly kind in manner and
prepossessing in outward appearance, being both well-dressed and
good-looking. They asked the old question as to the gender of the
Company."--Lieut. Eyre's Journal of Imprisonment in Affghanistan.
[45] "Apropos de bottes,"--"Now you speak of a _Gun_:" Moore, in
his Life of Sheridan, observes that but a very imperfect report of
Sheridan's celebrated speech on the impeachment of Warren Hastings is
preserved. The following piquant passage relating to the East India
Company, as then constituted and acting, occurs in a report of the
speech published in an old Magazine, for February, 1787. "He remembered
to have heard an honourable and learned gentleman (Mr. Dundas) remark,
that there was something in the first frame and constitution of the
Company, which extended the sordid principles of their origin over all
their successive operations, connecting with their civil policy, and
even with their boldest achievements, the meanness of a pedlar and the
profligacy of pirates. Alike in the political and the military line
could be observed auctioneering ambassadors and trading generals; and
thus we saw a revolution brought about by affidavits; an army employed
in executing an arrest; a town besieged on a note of hand; a prince
dethroned for the balance of an account. Thus it was they exhibited a
government which united the mock majesty of a bloody sceptre, and the
little traffic of a merchant's counting-house, wielding a truncheon
with one hand and picking a pocket with another."
[46] It is expressly stated that the cards of one of the packs are made
of canvas, in a memorandum which accompanies them. This is the pack
which is said to be a thousand years old. On first handling them they
seemed to me to be made of thin veneers of wood.
[47] Though Mahometans might object to paint figured cards, it appears
that they do "tolerate" them, and that very amply, by using them. See a
description of the Gunjeefu, or cards used by the Moslems, at page 41.
[48] In a note to the article on Whist, in the Foreign Quarterly
Review, No. 48, previously referred to, this pack of cards is noticed,
and the suits are thus enumerated: "While this article was in the
press, we have been favoured with a sight of two packs of cards in the
possession of the Royal Asiatic Society: and, as truth is more strange
than fiction, one of these, consisting of TEN Suits, certainly does
represent the TEN Avatars or incarnations of the VISTNOU, or Vishnava,
sect.... The suits are:
1. The Fish.
2. The Tortoise.
3. The Boar.
4. The Lion.
5. The Monkey.
6. The Hatchet.
7. The Umbrella (or Bow.)
8. The Goat.
9. The Boodh.
10. The Horse.
"The Dwarf of the 5th Avatar is substituted by the Monkey; the Bow and
Arrows of the 7th by the Cattashal or Umbrella, which gives precisely
the same outline; and the Goat there, as often elsewhere, takes the
place of the Plough."
On the pack of eight cards, which was probably one of those previously
noticed in the present volume, the writer of the article makes the
following observations: "The other pack has eight suits, of eight
cards and two court cards each; eighty in all. [The number of cards,
inclusive of the honours, in each suit, is twelve, as has been
previously observed.] The Parallelogram, Sword, Flower, and Vase,
answer to the Carreau, Espada, Club, and Copa of European suits: the
Barrel (?), the Garland (?), and two kinds of Chakra (quoit) complete
the set."--The Sword is plain enough, and so is the parallelogram. The
Flower and the Cup, I confess, I have not been able to make out; and I
question much if the Parallelogram--which in another pack, subsequently
described, represents a royal diploma or mandate--be the original of
the Carreau or Diamond on European cards. The "two kinds of Chakra" are
simply two circular marks.
[49] Engravings of those subjects, as well as their description, will
be found in 'Religions de l'Antiquité, considerées principalement
dans leurs formes symboliques et mythologiques; ouvrage traduit de
l'Allemand du Dr. Frederic Creutzer, par J. D. Guigniant.' Planches,
premier cahier, p. 11, 8vo; Paris, 1825.
[50] "Espèce de roue enflammée, symbole de la force vivante qui pénètre
et meut l'univers."
[51] The Institutions of Moses and those of the Hindoos compared. By
Joseph Priestly, LL.D. p. 56. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1799.
[52] Beshbur.
[53] Kumbur.
[54] The names of the suits are thus explained: _Taj_, a crown.
_Soofed_, white, abbreviated from the original appellation,
_zur-i-soofed_, a silver coin; figuratively, the moon. _Shumsher_,
a sabre. _Gholam_, a slave. _Chung_, a harp. _Soorkh_, red, or
_zur-i-soorkh_, gold coin; figuratively, the sun. _Burat_, a royal
diploma, or assignment. _Quimash_, merchandize.
[55] In cutting for the deal, _Taj_ is the highest suit, and the rest
have precedence, after that suit, in the order above recited.
[56] "By an oversight of the engraver, a native Bengalee artist, the
Moon in No. 2, Plate I, is represented as crescent instead of full.
[The error has been _faithfully retained_ in our fac-similes.] The
price of the pack was two rupees."
[57] "In the Dictionary Hindostanee and English, edited by the late
Dr. Hunter, the names of the Eight Suits of Cards are to be found
under the word _Taj_, the name of the first suit."--On the authority
of a gentleman of eminent attainments in Hindostanee literature, I am
informed that there is no _Sanscrit_ word for Playing Cards.
[58] A particular account of the mode of playing the game of "L'Hombre
à trois," will be found in the first volume of the 'Académie des Jeux.'
The author observes, "Il est inutile de s'arrêter à l'etymologie du jeu
de l'hombre; il suffit de dire que les Espagnols en sont les auteurs,
et qu'il se sent du flegme de la nation dont il tire son origine."
According to the same authority, "_La Quadrille_ n'est, à proprement
parler, que l'hombre à quatre, qui n'a pas, à la verité, la beauté, ni
ne demande pas une si grande attention que l'hombre à trois; mais aussi
faut-il convenir qu'il est plus amusant et plus recréatif."
[59] Barrington's Observations on the Antiquity of Card-playing in
England.--Archæologia, vol. viii, 1787.
[60] Chung is also the Chinese name for a kind of harp.--In three
other packs of Hindostanee cards, of the same kind, which I have had
an opportunity of examining, the harp occurs both in the honours
and the numeral cards. I suspect that the bird has been substituted
through a mistake of the native artist who engraved the cards. In
one of the packs just alluded to, the cards are not circular, but
rectangular, like European cards, but of much smaller size. In another
pack of Hindostanee cards which I have seen, the marks in all the
eight suits are birds; in four of the suits, they are all of the same
form--something like that of a starling--but differing in their colour;
in three others they are all geese, and of the same colour, so that
the suit is only to be distinguished by the ground on which they are
painted. The mark of the eighth suit is a peacock.
[61] These are still the marks of the suits in Spain: "Copas, Espadas,
Oros, y Bastos." The "Oros," literally golden money, are also called
_Dineros_, that is, money in general. The same marks are also to be
found on old Italian cards, and the names for them were, Coppe, Spade,
Danari, and Bastoni. The discrepancy between the names, Spades and
Clubs, and the marks of these suits, in English cards, will be noticed
in its proper place.
[62] Religions de l'Antiquité; traduction Française de Guigniant.
[63] Von Hammer's Mines of the East.
[64] This is Mr. Colebrooke's conclusion. Sir John Malcolm gives a
different account, the correctness of which may be very justly doubted,
both as regards the present time and the past: "The four divisions
of Hindoos, viz. the priests, soldiers, merchants, and labourers,
appear to have existed in every human society, at a certain stage of
civilization; but in India alone have they been maintained for _several
thousand years_ with prescriptive vigour."--Essay on the Bhills (Beels)
by Sir John Malcolm, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,
vol. i, p. 65, 1824.
[65] Innocentio Ringhieri, Cento Ginochi liberali et d'Ingegno, p. 132.
4to. Bologna, 1551.
[66] The Life of St. Francis Xavier, by Father Bouhours: translated by
John Dryden, pp. 71, 203, 697.
[67] "The 6th October, [1592] they met with a Malacca ship of 700
tons, which, after her main-yard was shot through, yielded.... They
found on board fifteen pieces of brass cannon, 300 butts of Canary
and Nipar or Palm-wine, with very strong raisin wine; all sorts of
haberdashery-wares, as hats, red knit caps, and stockings of Spanish
wool; velvets, taffeties, camblets, and silks; abundance of suckets,
rice, Venice glasses, counterfeit stones (brought by an Indian from
Venice, to cheat the Indians), _Playing Cards_, and two or three packs
of French paper." The prize was taken in the Straits of Malacca; and
the articles of European manufacture appear to have been brought to
Malacca by the Portuguese.--The Naval Chronicle; or Voyages of the most
celebrated English Navigators, vol. i, p. 392. 8vo. 1760.
[68] Burnes's Travels into Bokhara, vol. ii, p. 169. Second edit. 1835.
[69] Card-playing appears to be a very common amusement in
Hindostan.--"I could remind or perhaps inform the fashionable gamesters
of St. James's Street, that before England ever saw a dice-box, many
a main has been won and lost under a palm-tree, in Malacca, by the
half-naked Malays, with wooden and painted dice; and that he could not
pass through a bazaar in this country [Hindostan] without seeing many
parties playing with cards, most cheaply supplied to them by leaves of
the cocoa-nut or palm-tree, dried, and their distinctive characters
traced with an iron style.... At the corner of every street you may see
the Gentoo-bearers gambling over chalked-out squares, with small stones
for men, and with wooden dice; or Coolies playing with cards of the
palm-leaf. Nay, in a pagoda under the very shadow of the idol, I have
seen Brahmins playing with regular packs of Chinese cards."--Sketches
of India: written by an Officer for Fireside Travellers at Home, pp. 68
and 100. Fourth edition, 1826.
[70] For the reference to the Ching-tsze-tung, and the explanation of
the passage relating to cards, I am indebted to Mr. S. Birch, of the
British Museum.
[71] "Second Mémoire sur les Relations politiques des Rois de France
avec les Empereurs Mongols," dans le Journal Asiatique, de Septembre,
1822, p. 62.