Playing Cards Were Known In the Days of Solomon

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6631, 9 June 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

Playing Cards Were Known In the Days of Solomon

The History of the Popular “Pack” Makes Very Fascinating Reading... RE, water, writing, wheat flour and sheep’s wool are among the very, very small list of things which have descended through all centuries and all ages. Automobiles? Airplanes? Radio? Tomatoes? Gasoline? These strictly modern things have no place in the aristocracy of objects which ■ have the various great phases of history. To this aristocracy belong—playing cards! ■ •

To many card devotees this will come as a surprise. The vogue of cards as an international and unrestricted, pastime has expanded within the radius of 20 years. Hence the feeling that they are more or less modern. Go to the dark eyed Gipsy, however, and you will learn of families through whom packs of cards have descended for 345 generations' Strange, isn’t It, to learn of such a background for the hand on which yon may'have bid “five—redoubled?” But cards date back to the days of Solomon. First they found place on the walls of the Temple of Thoth along the Egyptian Nile. Strange and prophetic paintings they were, paintings which, told of life and death, paintings from which the priests could prophesy what the future held for their worshippers. “Thoth," the god was called in Egypt, but “Mercury” was his name in *-European mythology—and the temple incantations which reached their height in Egypt found their birth alohg the Tiber or by the shores of the Aegean. Sea. • Daring priests of the faith founded a temple near Naples, at a vanished city called Serapeon, built hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. It is down through 345 generations that our present-day cards have come to the . gipsies from their forbears, the stately priests of Serapeon. Seventy-seven cards there were in the original pack. Not until the 1395 did the “tarots" or fortune cards gain separation from the “pips,” or suit cards, whence came our present array of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. , , , „ When telling fortunes with the full historic pack, the major trend was told by the falling of the “fortune cards.” For instance, a card picturing a very evil-loking man is called “II Diavolo” (the devil).. This card indicates approaching fatality, illness, temptation, jealousy, suspicion. “La Torre” (The Tower) shows a building struck by lightning. When this card falls, in various relationships with the “pip” cards, which will- be explained later, it signifies sorrow, destruction, vice, degeneration. “II Sol (the sun) denotes a revival or awakening of interest, a re-establishment of self-esteem. “II Guidizio’ 1 (the judge) betokens the day of judgment, the resurrection of the dead, readjustment, regeneration,/manual skill and artistic ability. The twenty-five picture cards go down through the whole line of human fortunes. To the priest of Thoth they literally were a loose-leafed Bible. By riffling them in his hands, in connection with the “pips,” he was able to decide any human problem and to make judgments affecting the fate of thousands. This fatal 25 has passed out of use, except with certain tribes of gipsies. They have been out-dis-tanced by the once-despised “pips.” The “pips.” which have been mod-

ernised into our present-day suits, were simply exclamation points which affirmed the initial judgment of ihe fortune cards. The ancient suits were the same in number as now, while bearing different names and different characters. The Spade suit was the “sword” suit in 1542; diamonds, the “money suit”; hearts the “cup” suit and clubs the “rod” suit.

When Charles VI. of France grew bored of life his courtiers didn’t worry about the religious significance of the “tarots.” They scurried to find some amusement to keep his mind from twisting into warped channels, which had brought death or banishment to many. Etienne Vignelles and Etienne Chevalier are the two men who appeased the eccentric king with a changed deck l of cards, and a new fascinating game, piquet. As this article is not a new version of Hoyle we will not dwell on the rules of piquet. The development of the cards themselves is our main concern. Vignelles and Chevalier discarded the original “pips” because they had no elements of flattery for the king. The court cards, king, queen and knave, were repainted to the portraits of court personalities. The king, of course, was Charles. The queen was Isabella of Austria. The ermine coats, velvet hats, crowns, etc., were all of that period. ...... Interesting reasons were behind the change of the old suits. The money suit became diamonds, because the attention of the inventors was drawn to diamond-shaped panes of glass in the palace of Jacques Couer, the king’s banker. It was another case of environment settling important points of history. Rods changed to clubs because the latter was the heraldic design of Agnes Sorel, the King s mistress. Swords became spades for a similar reason connected with two brothers of the Court, Jean and Gaspard Bureau. Vignelles and Chevalier standardised the present colours of red and black. Cards ceased to be art objects. In Spain and Italy great noblemen hired famous painters to do their cards. The cards of Duke Flillipo, Maria Visconti and Cardinal Sforza have been very costly museum gems for many years. When piquet crossed the Channel to England, Henry VII. liked the gamehut he didn’t approve of giving a free advertisement to Charles VI.! So the cards were changed to bear the likeness of Henry for the King and Elizabeth of York for the Queen. There was no joker in either the French or English packs. It did not enter cards until 1850 —and he became a part of the pack through a desire for greater variety in card games. It is the only one of the old “fortune cards” to find a place in modern usage. It is the fifty-third card of the deck, the “joker.” This card was called “Le Fou” (the fool). Unstable, “the fool” took to himself the character of any card which fell near to him. Obvious is the development from this into the present use of the joker. In the fortune deck, “the fool” was a symbol of unconventionally and instability.

Euchre is still played, as it was fiy Henry VIII. Ecarte is a popular French gambling game, and the ancient game of bakerout has evolved into modern baccarat. Whist, the most popular of all card games, was first played in 1674. The impression must not be given that swords, cups, money and rods were the only suit names for mediaeval cards. They were the most common as they were used by the most aggressive countries of the period, Spain, Prance and England. In the Balkans arrows, straws, sceptres and rods were the suits. In Korea various formations of arrows formed the deck. Acorns, bells and hearts were of the four suits in the German deck. The German deck had extra cards. Their games had two jacks, an over-knave and an underknave. One cannot dismiss cards with a casual gesture. They are one of the great, one of the few connecting links of history which have been carried through all ages and all times.