Plate 21.
The “gambling-sticks” used by the Alaska Indians closely resemble those already described; and they also have two kinds of “sticks,” some of them carved and some painted. There are fifty-four cubes in the painted pack, some of them perfectly plain or unpainted; two more plain sticks have notched ends, which probably increases their value. Fourteen of the sticks have stripes painted on them, but these are so faint and blurred as to be almost unnoticeable. None of this set are notched. Three sticks are striped with black bars, one, two, and three in number; five sticks have red bands. Another set of six sticks have red and black stripes, numbering from one to eight. All these sticks are notched at one end, and, besides the bars, have on them smears of red or black paint. The game played with the painted sticks appears to be the same as that played with the carved ones; and the former are also kept in a leather pouch, which is bound or tied with a leather thong.
JAPAN.
IT is to Japan that we must turn when we wish to find the most dainty and original of Playing-cards. This interesting nation have devised for themselves the symbols that they use, which are so unique that they bear no features in common with those of any other country, if we except one device which may be an accidental one, and which will hereafter be mentioned; otherwise the Japanese playing-cards differ completely from those of other places, except that they are painted on pasteboard and highly glazed or varnished.
Those writers who trace in European and other cards a resemblance to the classes of society into which the world is divided, and promulgate the opinion that the four suits commonly seen represent them,—namely, the Cup or Priest, the Sword or Soldier, Money the Merchant, and Maces the Artisan,—would find it impossible to divide the Japanese cards in this way, as they belong distinctly to a new set of ideas, and seem to have been originated in the Islands, where alone they are used, and do not show, as those of other nations do, some mark or device which betrays to the student an inherited symbol which may be traced to the original Oriental card.
Japanese cards are of the same shape as those used by the French and other European nations, but are very much smaller than ordinary cards, being a little more than two inches long by one broad. They are made of pasteboard, on the back of which black paper has been carefully pasted over the edges of the cards so as to leave a narrow rim to form a frame on the face of the card. The symbols are stencilled, and the whole card varnished or enamelled, so that they are extremely slippery.
Plate 22.
Forty-nine in number, they are divided into twelve suits of four each, with one card which is a trifle smaller than the others, and which has a plain white face and is used as a “Joker.” On the other cards are painted flowers or emblems appropriate to the twelve months of the year; each card is distinct and different from its fellows, even when bearing the same emblem, and they can be easily distinguished and classified not only by the design they bear, but also by a character or letter which marks nearly every card, and which seems to denote the vegetable that represents the month.