Catalogue of the collection of playing cards bequeathed to the Trustees of the British museum by the late Lady Charlotte Schreiber.

CIINESE CARDS.

185

class of playing cards, a class concerning which nothing but baseless conjecture has hitherto been published in Europe.
The first point to be noticed in respect to them is that no distinction
is made in China between cards proper and what we should regard as
dominoes. The term for both is p'ai (pronounced 'pie' as in Tipperary),
and pasteboard cards are simply "paper p'ai " in contradistinction to
bamboo, wooden, bone, or ivory p'ai. The same game can be had at any
seat of luxury, such as Canton or Shanghai, either in the form of
coarsely printed slips of pasteboard or as ivory and ebony tablets half an
inch thick, neatly fitted into a sandalwood box. [See Hwahaw Nos. 2
and 3.] For some games, as the universally popular one of T'ienkiu
(Tenquew) or " Heaven and Nines," tablets seem preferred to paper slips;
for others, such as Chiimap'ao (Keemapow)-" Rook, Knight and Cannon"
— pasteboard is generally used. [See Nos. 9-14.]
In England, as practically throughout Europe, one kind of playing
card has swallowed up all others; but in China packs of very different
style and origin contrive to exist side by side. Some of these, indeed, are
local [See Nos. 30-33], if a pack used throughout a district as broad as
Spain can be described as local, while others are found all over the
Empire. An examination of the specimens in the present collection will
show that Chinese cards derive their designs or their use from at least
four distinct sources, namely (1) dice, (2) chessmen, (3) coins, and (4) a
set form of words.
1. If any one sufficiently interested in the matter will take a pair of
dice and throw them sufficiently often, he will find that 21 different
results can thus be obtained. These combinations the Chinese, with
affectionate solicitude, have christened as follows:1. Double sixes, "heaven." a. Four and five nis.
2.,, aces I, 'earth." b. Three and six J " e
3., fours 4, "man." c. Two and six \
4. Ace and three ~, "harmony" or d. Three and five-J '
"the geese." e. Three and four 3,,
5. Double fives 5, "plums." f. Two and five sevens
C.,, threes 3, "long threes" or g. One and four "fiv
"door chain." h. Two and threeJ e
7. Double twos ], "the bench." i. Two and four 2, "bighead six."
8. Five and six -, "tiger's head" or j. One and two 2, "three chickens."
" the chopper."
9. Four and six -4, "the screen."
10. Ace and six, "the water bucket."
11. Ace and five ~, "the hammer."
The first eleven of these are known as "civilians," the last ten
(Nos. a-j) as the military, and the order in which they are here given is
the order of their value, which it is of great importance to remember. It
is, in fact, one of the earliest pieces of useful information acquired by the
young idea, of either sex, in China.