CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 



809 



Leuormaud declares that the bares)iia originated in a bundle of divin- 

 ing wands, such as were thrown in Chaldea and Babylonia. Madam 

 Ragozin/ following the same line of comparison, points out the resem- 

 blance between the haresma (fig. 123) and a peculiar object (flg. 124) 

 which frequently recurs deposited upon the altar in Assyrian scenes of 

 worship and sacrifice. "The use of it, or the nature, has never yet 

 been explained ; but on close inspection it looks extremely like a bundle 

 of twigs, uneven in number, tied together 

 with a ribbon. Is it not likely that it may 

 represent the sacred divining rods and be 

 the original of the Avestan haresma .^" 



Fig. 123. 



BARESM.i (barsom) with §tand. 



Moderu Persia. 



rawing in the Story of Mwlia, Babylon aud Persia. 



-Fig. 124. 



ASSYRIAN ALTAR. 



Compare Bare^ma with stand, lig. 12.'i. 



From drawing in the Story of Mt-dia, Babylon an. I 



In ancient China the nobles of the highest ranks carried scepters of 

 jade stone,- the name of which, hnuil, is written with a character, which 

 compounded with the radical for "hand," stands for Incd^ "to divine 

 with straws," No. Go; and again, \\\t\\j)ul'^ "to divine," written on the 

 right, lor the lucd or divinatory diagrams formed of unbroken and 

 broken lines.-' These diagrams may be regarded as representing the 

 permutations of two-faced staves, three j)rodacing the trigrams (fig. 5), 



I ara indebted to Prof. A. Y. Williams Jackson, of Columbia University, for an oppor- 

 tunity to examine a set of haresma, presented to bim with a set of sacrificial imple- 

 ments by Mr. Diusbab Pestanji Framji Gbadiali. They consist of a bundle of fortj^- 

 tlirce brigbt brass wires 5 incbes in length (fig. 122). In reply to my inquiry be 

 writes that the number in this particular specimen is evidently a matter of chance, 

 and he furnishes me with the following reference: 



Hang's Essays on the Parsis, p. 397 (third edition, by E. W. West), says: 



"The harsom consists of a number of slender rods or fdJ, formerly twigs of some 

 particular trees, but now thin metal wires are generally U8e<l. The number of these 

 ^(7/ depends upon the nature of the ceremony to be celebrated. For Ijasbne (i/azislui) 

 alone 21 tdi are required ; for Ijasbne, with Vendidad and Visparad, 33 tdi ; for Yasbt-i 

 Rapithwin 13 ti'ii; for Darfin Bfij 5 tdi,.ov 7 wlien a priest becomes a lierbad." 



' Zeuaide A. Ragozin, The Story of Media, Babylon, and Persia, Xew York, IWS. 

 p. 149. 



-The kaupui or divinations blocks (fig. 212), were originally made of stone. 



^The Book of Ili.story states that in the first month (the time when divination was 

 especially practiced) the Emperor collected the five kinds of scepters, and at the 

 expiration of the month he gave them back to the various chiefs. 



