CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 



By Stewart Culin, 

 Director of the ^[us(^llm of Archwology and Paleontologi/, Unirerstty of Pennsylvania. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The object of this collection' is to illustrate the probable origin, 

 significance, and development of the games of chess and playing-cards. 

 Following up the suggestion made to the writer by Mr. Frank H. 

 Cushing, they are both regarded as derived from the divinatory use of 

 the arrow, and as representing the two principal methods of arrow- 

 divination. Incidental to the main subject, various games and divina- 

 tory processes having a like origin, although not leading directly to 

 chess or cards, are exhibited, as well as specimens of each class from 

 various countries. 



The basis of the divinatory systems from which games have arisen 

 is assumed to be the classification of all things according to the Four 

 Directions.^ This method of classification is practically universal 



'This collection, for which a diploma of honor and gold medal were awarded at 

 the Atlanta Exposition, was subsequently placed on exhibition in the V. S. National 

 Mnsenni, where it has since been augmented by many of the additiimal games 

 described in this catalogue. — Editor. 



Some idea of the extent to which the classification of things according to the 

 world quarters was carried in Eastern Asia may be obtained from tlie numerical 

 categories in the second part of Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, from which the 

 following examples are taken: 



I append, for purpose of comparison, a list of some of the corresponding cate- 

 gories as they exist in the pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico, kindly furnished me by 

 Mr. Cushing. 



It should bo observed that the connotations of color and direction vary from the 

 nbove and from each other among the dift'erent Ain<>ri( an tribes, between Aztec and 

 Maya, and between the different Mexican chroniclers. 



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