Battez, battez les bien, battez, battez les tous,
N'épargnez pas les Roys, les Dames, ni les FOUS."
[30] "The b and v in Persian are constantly used for each other; one instance will suffice—the plural of na-eeb, a viceroy, is equally pronounced nu-vaub and nu-baub, or, according to our pronunciation, nabob."—A Personal Narrative of a Journey from India to England, by Captain the Hon. George Keppel, vol. ii, p. 89. Second edit. 1827.
[31] "Naipe, carton, &c. Tamarid quiere que sea nombre Arabigo, y lo mismo el Brocense; pero comunamente se juzga que se los dio este nombre por la primer cifra que se las puso, que fue una N y una P, con que se significaba el nombre de su inventor, Nicolao Pepin: y de ahi con pequeña corrupcion se dixo Naipe."—Diccionario de la Academia Españolo, edit. 1734.
[32] Istoria della Citta di Viterbo, da Feliciano Bussi, p. 213. Roma, 1743. The passage relating to cards appears to have been first pointed out by Leber, in his Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 43. "Though we have no information respecting the precise date of Covelluzzo's birth or death," says Mons. Leber, in a note at p. 17 of Mons. Duchesne's Précis Historique, "it is yet certain that this chronicler, whose name is properly Giovanni de Juzzo de Covelluzzo, wrote in the fifteenth century, and that what he relates about cards being brought into Viterbo in 1379, was extracted from the chronicle of Nicholas de Covelluzzo, one of his ancestors, who, as well as himself, was an inhabitant of Viterbo, and who possibly might have resided there at the period when cards were first introduced."
[33] Mahmoud, the Gasnevide, first invaded Hindostan in a.d. 999.
[34] "χαρταριον; Gallicum, quartier; scutulum quadratum. Extat. apud Codinum de Offic. aulæ Constantinop. χαρτιον, idem quod χαρταριον."—Meursii Glossarium Græco-Barbarum, 4to, Lugd. Batavor., 1605.—Quartier de bois. A quarter, or square piece of timber.—Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary.
[35] "Cayer. A quire of written paper; a piece of a written book, divided into equal parts."—Cotgrave. The cayer appears to have been synonymous with the pecia of monkish writers. It may be observed that from chartar, a Persian word literally signifying 'four-strings,' the Rev. Stephen Weston has traced the descent of κιθαρα; cithara; chitarra; and guitar. To these derivates the old English gittern may be added."—Specimens of the Conformity of the European Languages, especially the English, with the Oriental languages, especially the Persian. By Stephen Weston, B. D. 12mo, 1802.
[36] It may be here noted that the word Wuruk or Wuruq, used by the Moslems in Hindostan to signify a card, signifies also the leaf of a tree, a leaf of paper, being in the latter sense identical with the Latin folium. See Richardson's Arabic Dictionary, word "Card;" and the word "Wuruq"' in the list of terms used at the game of cards as played at Hindostan, given in a subsequent page.
[37] Should I be told that the correct word for "four" in Hindostanee, is chatur, chatta, or cattah,—not chartah,—and be required to account for the ρ in χαρτης, supposing the latter word to be derived from the same root, I should answer by giving a case in point—the derivation of quartus from quatuor,—leaving others to assign the reason. I subjoin here, by way of contrast, a different etymology of carta—Epistola, a letter. "Quieren algunos que este nombre Castellano, Carta, se derivasse de la ciudad de Carta insigne por aver sido cuna de la reyna Dido, y atribuyen à esta ciudad la etimologia, por aver sido la primera que dio materia en que las Cartas se escriviessen."—Seneca impugnado de Seneca, &c. Por Don Alonzo Nuñez de Castro, p. 220, 4to. Madrid, 1661.—Is there any evidence to show that the form of ancient Carthage was Square?