Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards

by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer

Many writers have thought that Playing Cards were simply an evolution of Chess, and the features connecting them have been widely discussed, since there are strongly marked attributes common to both. But, as far as is known, Chess has never at any time been used for divination, and there are no traditions connecting it with prophesying, while from time immemorial cards have been used for fortune-telling by almost all nations, either through the complete pack of Tarots, or the Book of Thoth, their successors, the Playing Cards, or their predecessors, the divining arrows.

On the other hand, Chess is distinctly a mimic battleground, with armies of warriors drawn in serried ranks, defying each other to mortal combat, whether there are only two armies, as in the modern games, or four, as on some of the Asiatic boards. The figures are the rank and file of the army, with their castles for base and retreat, their cavalry, their executive officers, and generals, with the monarch to preside over the field. That in Europe one of the figures is called a Queen is strangely out of place, for her actions and moves during the game are those of an active lieutenant or aide-de-camp. The name has been given to the piece in modern days, for originally and in the East it is called the Vizier. That the piece may be called after the dame who invented the game, as is said, seems improbable.

Some writers declare that Chess came from Southern Africa, where it is well known; but it is also found in primitive form in Korea and throughout Eastern Asia, and traces of it have been seen in Central Asia, where (in Babylonia) stones have been discovered that are marked in squares, as if intended for Draught or Chess boards.

A pretty legend is told of the Emperor Akbar, of India, for whom his countrymen declared that the game was invented by one of his wives, who wanted to amuse her husband, after the manner of wives, and to keep him at home, particularly as the king was suffering from a sunstroke that made it inadvisable for him to venture to head his army. With this end in view, she ranged the courtiers on the black and white squares in the courtyard within the precincts of the palace, in order that the king might amuse himself fighting his battles in a harmless way from his divan, that was placed in one of the balconies overhanging the enclosed space. A graphic description of the palace is given in “Our Vice Regal Life in India,” by Lady Dufferin (page 150). Referring to the legend, she says: “There is a curious place which is a five-storied open court, each platform getting smaller, till the top one is a mere little summer house. Each one is supported on rows and rows of pillars, from them one looks down into a court, where the Great Mogul used to sit and play Chess with live pieces.”

In “India, China, and Japan,” by Bayard Taylor (page 108), the author says: “This palace of Sheesh Mahal (or Palace of Glass), with its courtyard paved with squares of black and white marble, has an open terrace in front, where is the throne of Akbar, which is a block of black marble about six feet square. It is said that when any one seats themselves on it, blood gushes from a split in the side, and red stains on the surface support this tradition. Opposite the throne is a smaller one of white marble, where the emperor’s fool sat and burlesqued his master.” This fellow carried a staff of office and conducted the pieces to their positions as indicated by Akbar and his opponent.

The game of chess, with living pieces, became a favourite with the Rajahs of India, so many of the courts of different palaces were also arranged for Chess or Parchesi, a game played with pieces, but with less complicated rules than for Chess. Though the court jester was the master of ceremonies, he has not taken his place permanently among the chessmen, although he may be sometimes found among them, notably in a beautiful gold and silver set of men made for one of the kings of Bavaria and now in the Museum at Munich. In this set there are two Jokers, who are placed in front of all the others in the middle of the board as at present arranged, but their value and moves seem not to have been recorded and are now practically unknown.

It was at one time supposed that the figures of the chessmen were transferred to pasteboard cards, thus making a masked army instead of one that was on an open field, and that Playing Cards originated in this way; but this theory is no longer tenable. Mr. Wiltshire, in “Playing Cards,” derides the idea that they are derived from Chess, saying: “Chess is a game of calculation and combination, and cards are purely chance,” which opinion is sustained, for up to this time the history of the two games points to no common derivation.

It is claimed that Chess was first played before the walls of Troy, having been invented by Palamedes to amuse the Greeks, who were tired of the monotony of the siege. This is probably one of the first records of games, although it is not certain that the one referred to was Chess any more than that it was a game of cards, which some writers have supposed.

In “The Sea Kings of Crete,” by Rev. James Baikie, is an account and an illustration of a gaming board just discovered in the palace of Minos, which certainly dates from one thousand four hundred years before Christ, but it resembles a Draught board more than one for Chess.

There is an Egyptian caricature of a lion and a unicorn playing a game on a table with men, which, however, are too indistinct to describe as chessmen. There is a set of chessmen in the British Museum, the date of which is uncertain, that are by some considered to have been of such early origin that they prove that the Egyptians had the game, although deductions of this kind are sometimes overthrown by subsequent discoveries.