CARD FORTUNE TELLING
10
Chess was the great Eastern game, and
ways
characteristic of a people to
is
whom Time
in
was
many
of
no
may have
been a game originally,
but as known by the gipsies they were only used for the
purposes of Divination, or Fortune Telling, and right up
to the present day they still form the most popular and
Cards
importance.
widespread means of testing the fortune.
Known
numbered
pips, as
for
as Tarocchi,
or Tarots,
the Divination cards
—
and were without numbers or
which were introduced in Europe
seventy-eight,
we
call
the sake
of
them
—
simplicity,
in
the fourteenth century.
Such packs are still in use in parts of the Continent, but
the Western pack has gradually taken its place, both for
the purpose of Divination and for playing games in fact,
it is usual to speak of a pack of " Playing cards," a distinction that is hardly necessary nowadays, as it is not
easy to obtain a pack of Tarot cards, unless one knows
where to go for them. The fact, however, that we still
use this distinctive name, shows that at one time the
two kinds were in use side by side.
If we compare a complete Tarot pack of cards with
the modern Playing cards we shall find many interesting
points of resemblance, and at the same time discover
the reason for the changes made in the Western World.
There are twenty-one Tarot cards that are used solely
for purposes of Divination, and the designs of these cards
vary greatly and have probably never had any real signifi-
—
cance.
In addition to these, there
as the Fool
— and as
far as
is
we know
always a card known
the card has always
For purposes of Divination it has
no separate indication, but serves to intensify the meaning of the card next to it. Thus it becomes a very powerremained the same.
ful
and dominant card when one is foretelling the Future,
by the Fool is certain to be
as the indication supported