SPAIN.
THE Spaniards base their claim of having been the first to use, if they were not the inventors of, playing-cards to the fact that Naïbi, the name by which cards were known among the Italians about the year 1393, is very nearly similar to the name by which they are known in Spain to-day. As it was about that time that Italy was invaded by the Spaniards, they declare that they, as the conquerors, imposed cards upon that country and taught their use, under the name they bore in their own homes.
The Spanish word Naïpes, as we have already mentioned, seems to be derived from one which means “flat” or “even;” but an ancient Spanish dictionary states that it comes from the initial letters of the name of the Spanish inventor of cards, N. P., Nicolas Pepin. This etymology seems fanciful and as unsatisfactory as the claim to the invention of the cards; but the Spaniards can point to a statute made by John the First, King of Castile, in 1387, which prohibits “games of dice, of Naypes, and of Chess;” and this proves beyond dispute that at that date they were at least well known in that place.
A Flemish traveller named Eckeloo, who lived about 1540, describes the Spaniards of his time as “most passionately fond of gambling,” and says that he “travelled many leagues in Spain without being able to procure the necessaries of life, not even bread or wine, but that in every miserable village cards were to be bought.” Travellers of the present day describe the tradespeople, fishermen, and beggars of every wretched town playing even at the street-corners, and using blocks of stone or the steps of the churches on which to throw their cards.
It was the Spaniards without doubt who carried cards into Mexico, when they conquered that country in 1519; and history mentions that Montezuma took great pleasure in watching the Spanish soldiers at their games.
Mr. Singer says that the Spanish pack consists, like the German, of only forty-eight cards, as they contain no tens. Their four suits are named Espadas (Spades), Copas (Cups), Oros (Money), and Bastos (Maces). Oros means literally “golden money;” and this suit is also called Dineros,—that is, “money in general.” Like the Italian and German packs, they have no Queen, her place being taken by the usual Knight, or Mounted horseman. The court cards are called Il Rey (King), Caballo (Knight), and Sota (Knave). There are some packs in which a Queen is permitted, the suits then having four court cards instead of three.