382 PLAYING CARDS FROM JAPAN — VAN EENSSALAER, 



February displays, as its emblem, a plum blossom ; the four cards 

 devoted to this month bearing its flower in various positions. 



March has a red cherry blossom, and April the hanging tendrils of 

 the wistaria vine. On one of the cards of this suit is a wee yellow-bird, 

 which is ilying across its surface under a crimson cloud. 



For May there are beautiful blue Iris springing from long spiky 

 leaves. One card shows in one of its corners part of a dock or pier, 

 and also the water out of which the flower is lifting its lovely head. 



June is represented by blood-red peonies, over one of which two yel- 

 low butterflies are hovering. 



On Jul^y^'s cards star-shaped leaves, some yellow, some red, and some 

 black, are scattered over their surfaces. These leaves resemble those of 

 our " Gum " or " Liquid amber " trees, but they bear the Japanese name 

 of Hagi. On one of the cards belonging to this suit a deer is repre- 

 sented standing under the branches of this strangely-hued tree. This 

 is the only figure which recalls in anyway the emblems used on cards 

 belonging to other nations, as on one of the Chinese cards is found 

 either a deer or else Chinese characters which have been translated to 

 mean " This is a deer." 



August is represented by four pictures of grass-covered mountains, 

 in three of which they are sharply defined against a clouded blue sky, 

 and in the fourth the sun, looking hot and sultry,. beams down on a 

 treeless hill. Three birds fly across the sky on one of these cards. 



September bears the Mikado's flower, a yellow and red chrysanthemum. 

 October, a maple tree with red or yello v leaves; and on one card is a 

 yellow boar trotting off' towards the symbolic tree. 



November shows on one of its cards a willow sharply outlined against 

 a leaden sky. The willows on a fellow-card look wind-tossed, and a 

 long-tailed bird skims across the sky. A third card is covered with 

 inky clouds, torrents of rain, and strange zigzags resembling forked 

 lightning. The fourth card of this suit bears a quaint figure of a man 

 rushing, through the storm under the willow trees and dropping his san- 

 dals in his haste, his head covered with a huge yellow umbrella ; streaks 

 of lightning surround the little figure, and the storm of rain is well de- 

 picted in the picture. 



December bears the imperial Japanese plant kiri, and over one of 

 these flowers hovers a beautiful red-crested silver-winged pheasant. 



Au infinite variety of games are played with these cards, as there is 

 a shade of difference in each one of each set, and in some games each 

 has a separate value. The fav^orite game in Japan at the present mo- 

 ment is very like casino, in which any card of a set may take any other, 

 but all have their own values in the final count. 



