CARDS (Fr. carte, card. Med. Lat. curia, charta, card, Lat. charta, paper, from Gk. xdprn, charff, leaf of paper). Cards for playing games of chance are of the most remote antiquity, and of almost universal usage. There is evidence that they were in use in Egypt in the time of Joseph, hut they did not appear among the Jews until after their return from the Baby lonian exile. That their use extended as far east as Hindustan and China at a period long before their introduction into Europe is well at tested. There is documentary proof that they were in use in England in 1240. in Spain in 1267, in Italy in 1299, in Germany in 1300, and in France in 1361. There are two theories as to who brought them into Europe. Some ant iquarians maintain that they followed in the wake of the invading Saracens. who, after haying spread over Asia and Africa. crossed the .lediterrancan in 711. Others claim that the Crusaders brought the practice of playing cards from the East, where they had of course come in contact with the Saracens. Gambling was certainly rife among the Crusaders. There is still extant a proclamation against it, issued by the kings of England and France, who were the joint leaders of the Crusade of 1190. From whatever source playing-cards came, every nation of Europe used them, and that they had the same point of ori gin is pretty conclusively proved by the uniformi ty of the words by which they are known, both among Teutonic and Latin races. When, how eve•, the details of a pack are named, the nomen clature varies. just as the design and the number of cards in a pack have varied. With the Anglo-Saxons the world over it is fifty-two in four suits of thirteen each, i.e. king, queen, jack and ten cards, from ten to one, according to the number of pips. in Italy thirty-six cards formed a pack. and the older characteristically German cards were only thirty-two. In China, where the early Portuguese missionaries found cards in common use, a pack consisted of thirty cards in three suits of nine each, and three superior cards. Their cards were not more than half as wide as the European variety, and were called by the very expressive word siren, meaning a fan, evidently a suggestion taken from an out spread hand of cards. In Hindustan the early pack consisted of ten suits of twelve each, the marks of each of the ten snits being emblematic of one of their avatars or incarnations of Vishnu. In this symbolic respect. the cards of all nations have varied from time to time. Some have been historic, some have been political satires: some have lampooned particular people; some have represented class distinctions, for instance, the early Italian and Spanish packs, instead of the modern hearts. clubs, and spades, had
swords to represent the nobility, chalices for the clergy, coins for the citizens, and clubs or staves for the peasantry. The artistic embel lishment of the faces of cards would alone form a volume; among the devices were horsemen, elephants, hawks, bells, flowers, many birds. tumblers, and a host of other subjects. The four kings seemed at one time likely to lose their sway over the New World, for cards were manufactured in New York in 1S48 which had neither kings nor queens, the president of hearts being Washington, of diamonds John Adams, of clubs Franklin. and of spades Lafayette. The queens were Venus, Fortune, Ceres, and Minerva, and the knaves Indian chiefs.
Spain introdneed cards into the New World. Herrera mentions that when Cortes conquered Mexico King Montezuma took great pleasure in watching the Spanish soldiers play cards. Spain was more devoted to cards at that time than any other European nation. Although gen erally known, they were not common. Neither Petrarch, who described the social life of the first half of the Fourteenth Century. nor Chaucer, who depicted the second half. mentions cards, although they describe many other games of chance. By the middle of the next century their manufacture, even in England, had become quite a trade, for on the rolls of Parliament there is a petition, which was complied with, prohibiting their importation from abroad.
Even the names of most of the old games are only to be found in antiquarian works. Chief among them was one named in every country where it was played 'primero.' It found its way into Shakespeare, whose Falstaff says: "I never prospered since I forswore primero." It long continued a fashionable game, but was suc ceeded in general estimation by mauve, and piquet still survives. `Loadam,"Noddy,"Macke,' •Oubre,"Gleek,"Post and pan,' and 'Bank rout' are hut ghosts out of the writers of the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century.
A detailed description of the modern games of cards will be found under their distinctive titles. Consult: Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards (London, 1816) ; Chat to, Origin and History of Playing Cards (Lon don, 1848) ; Willshire, Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, (London, 1876) ; Taylor, The History of Playing Cards (London, 1865) ; R. Heflin, Originc des cartes ri joucr (Paris, 1869).