Whatever may have been the origin of chess, it seems to be generally admitted that the game, nearly the same in its principles as it is now played,--with its board of sixty-four squares, and men of different grades,--was first devised in India; and, without giving implicit credit to the well-known account of its invention by an Indian named Sissa, we may assume that the date assigned to it, namely, about the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era, is sufficiently correct for all practical purposes: a difference of two or three hundred years, either one way or the other, is of very little importance in a conjecture about the game, as connected with Playing Cards. Having now arrived at Chess, we fancy that we see something like "land," though it may be but a fog-bank after all. To speak without figure, it seems likely that the game of cards was suggested by that of chess. The affinity of the two games, and the similarity between the coat cards and the principal pieces in the game of chess, have already been pointed out by Breitkopf;[21] and he is so copious on the latter topic, that he has left but little for any of his successors to do, in this respect, except to condense his diffuse notes; for, as was said of William Prynne, his brains are generally to be found scattered about the margin of his works, and not in the text. A side, or suit, of chessmen consists of six orders, which in the old oriental game were named--1, _Schach_, the king; 2, _Pherz_, the general; 3, _Phil_, the elephant; 4, _Aspen-suar_, the horseman, or chevalier; 5, _Ruch_, the camel; and, 6, _Beydel_ or _Beydak_, the footmen or infantry. In this suit there was no queen, as the introduction of a female into a game representing the stratagems of war would have been contrary to the oriental ideas of propriety; and long after the introduction of chess into Europe, the second piece, now called the Queen, retained its Eastern name under the form of _Fierce_, _Fierche_, or _Fierge_, even after it had acquired a feminine character.[22] _Fierge_ at length becomes confounded with the French _Vierge_, a maid; and finally, the piece is called _Dame_, the lady, and so becomes thoroughly European, both in name and character. With respect to the changes which the other pieces have undergone in the European game of chess, it is only necessary to observe that _Phil_, the elephant, is now the _Fol_ or _Fou_ of the French, and the _Bishop_ of the English; _Aspen-suar_, the horseman, is the French _Chevalier_, and the English _Knight_; _Ruch_, the camel, is the French _Tour_, and the English _Rook_ or _Castle_; and the _Beydel_ or _Beydak_, the footmen, are now the French _Pions_, and the English _Pawns_.