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.