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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,

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