As there are different accounts of the incarnations of Vichnou, as has been previously observed, the following is given with the view of throwing a little more light on the subject: "Vichnou, the second person in the Hindoo trinity, is said to have undergone nine successive incarnations to deliver mankind from so many perilous situations. The first, they say, was in the form of a lion; the second of a hog; the third a tortoise; the fourth a serpent; the fifth that of a Bramin (a dwarf, a foot and a half high); the sixth a monster, namely, half man half lion; the seventh a dragon; the eighth a man born of a virgin; and the ninth an ape. Bernier adds a tenth, which is to be that of a great cavalier. (Voyage, vol. ii, p. 142.) A very particular and a very different account of these transformations is given by Mr. Sonnerat (Voyages, vol. i, p. 158), with curious representation of each of them." [51] In this account we have both a lion, and a man-lion, which are probably symbols of the same Avatar; and a dragon and a serpent, also probably symbols of the same thing, though neither of them occur in the cards, nor in the description of the drawings.

I shall now present the reader with a description of another pack of Hindostanee cards, and of the game played with them: it forms an article entitled 'Hindostanee Cards,' in the second volume of the Calcutta Magazine, 1815; and is accompanied with two plates, fac-similes of which are here given.

"The words Gunjeefu and Tas are used in Hindostanee to denote either the game, or a pack of cards. I have in vain searched the 'Asiatic Researches,' 'Asiatic Annual Register,' Sir William Ouseley's 'Oriental Collections,' and the 'Oriental Repertory,' by Dalrymple, for some account or description of the mode of playing the cards in use among the natives of Hindostan; and further, from the total silence of the French and English Encyclopædias, conclude that they have never engaged the attention of any inquirer. A description of the gunjeefu, or cards, used by the Moslems, may therefore be acceptable to our readers.

"In the 'Dictionary, Hindostanee and English,' edited by the late Dr. Hunter, the names of the eight suits are to be found under the word Taj, the name of the first suit.

"The pack is composed of ninety-six cards, divided into eight suits. In each suit are two court cards, the King, and the Wuzeer. The common cards, like those of Europe, bear the spots from which the suits are named, and are ten in number.

"Four suits are named superior, [52] and four the inferior [53] suits.

SUPERIOR SUITS.

INFERIOR SUITS.