﻿GAME OF CHESS, &C, 50l 



that tlie Persinn word was originally deriverl with 

 the i>-anK' fro ii tlie iJindoos. u ho '"al' th(- i-iecc 

 rof'h and rufha; and denominate the ship or hoat, 

 whi*.h is subicitiited tor the castle, eitin r nanca or 

 rbca. The corrnprion is as easy as the Fieiicli 

 vierge tri^v. p'tcrz or /erz, and the only diiVercnce 

 is. that l^ersian pride his end'-avoured tf) legiti- 

 mise the hlundcr by assigning- a reason for it. 



'i'he pieces we call bishops, i.he Hon Mr. Daines 

 B in mpton says, are called l)y th.e French fou or fools, 

 and supposes tlie epithet to liave been bestowed on 

 then* oy some M'ag, because kings and queens vv-ere 

 anciently attendee! by fools. 



I am ready to admit tliat M'ar is but too often the 

 offspring of vice and folly, and that it is no great 

 proof ot" wisdom in bishops to f jrsake their habits 

 of peace for war, but think it is refinin'.;-; a litile too 

 inu<h, to stigmatise th.m in particular as fools on 

 that account — Sir William Jones, in my opinion, 

 adduces a more legitimate deiivation, supposing the 

 foi or fou of the French (for iL is pronounced both 

 ways occasionally) to be derived from the Persian 

 Jil ov feel, an elepliant. In Italian tliese pieces are 

 still denominated il alsiuo or tlie elephant, ai.d 

 so they were in England at the beginning ot .the 

 seventeenth century. — Perhaps the French fou may 

 have been derived IVom the Chinese fou, the <;rave 

 councillors who attend on the clioofiong or general, 

 and who have the same diagonal moves as the bisho|;s ; 

 and their manddrin caps may have been chai :j,.d 

 with their names for mitres, as we now see them en- 

 graved. 



The pieces we call knights or horses have in ge- 

 neral the same appellation in other languages. 



The pawns, it is easy to perceive, are derived 

 from paon (a foot) Jrlindoo.^la/iee, piadah Persian, 

 and padati Sanscrit. 



The learned Doctor Hyde says, " that the word 

 chess is derived Irom tlie Persian word sha'i. or 



K K 3 king, 



