928 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



from those of Europe. The writer believes that it is more likely that 

 their origin rests directly upon older Asiatic traditions.' 

 83. GANjtFBH. Playing Cards.^ Persia. 



Fifty- seven cards of a set of sixty. Card-pieces about 2 J by If 

 inches, consisting of thick lacquered cardboard with black backs. 

 The faces bear pictures painted in colors upon gold-foil, the grounds 

 being of five different colors. These are as follows : 



Black: Lion devouring serpent; lion devouring ox; lions and serpent. 



Three varieties. 

 Green: Youth. (King) seated. Three varieties. 

 Yellow: Woman (Queen). Five varieties, in four of which the woman is 



accompanied by a child. 

 Gold: Youth; hunter Three varieties. 

 Red : Dancing-girls. Three varieties. 



A pack of Persian playing-cards in the possession of Mrs. C. C. 

 Curtis, of Albion, ^ew York, are identical with the preceding in size 

 and material, but bear somewhat different designs. They number 

 twenty cards, of five different colors, black, yellow (white), red, gold, 

 and green, four of each. There are two cards of each kind, making 

 ten different (;ards. 



Black: Two lions devouring two serpents; lion devouring antelope (Plate 



48«, h.) 

 Yellow: King on throne; mother (Madonna?) with child. (Plate 48c, d.) 

 Red: Lady with child; girl with wineglass and bottle. (Plate 49o, h ) 

 Gold: Two soldiers; lad with dog. (Plate -Jc, d.) 

 Green : Dancing-girls ; queen on throne. ( Plate 50a, b. ) 



The first-mentioned cards of each pair agree with those described 

 below by General Schindler. It will be observed that the uniform of 

 the soldiers, that of the English East India Company, precludes the 

 possibility of any high antiquity for these particular cards.' 



Gen. A. Houtum Schindler, of Teheran, in reply to a letter of inquiry 

 addressed by the writer, has forwarded the following account of Persian 

 cards: 



The old Persian name for these cards was ganjifch — a word, I think, derived from 

 the Chinese (chi-p'di — literally, paper-cards, the modern Chinese for playing-cards), 

 with the Persian word ganj^ "treasure" prefixed. It may have also been origi- 

 nally Ean-ch u-2)'(ii =z cards from Kanchu, in the Kansu province. The word (/anjifch 

 is in Persian now only employed for European playing-cards (four suits, ace to ten; 

 three pictui'e cards each suit), which, however, are also called varak, while the old 

 Persian playing-cards are known as varak ids — varak i (Unnds — or simply as, from the 

 game as or asanas, which is played with them. From travelers in Persia in the sev- 



' As an analogue to the rectangular, arrow-derived cards of Eastern Asia maybe 

 found in the playing-sticks of the northwest coast of America, so the wooden gam- 

 bling-disks of the same Indians may be taken as possible American equivalents of 

 the circular cards of India. 



- Cat. No. 182.58, Mus. Arch., Univ. Penn. 



'Six Persian cards similar to those described are tigured by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensse- 

 laer, in The Devil's Picture Books, London, 1892. 



