[51] The Institutions of Moses and those of the Hindoos compared. By Joseph Priestly, LL.D. p. 56. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1799.
[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.