To carry still further this speculation on the Indian origin of Playing Cards,--both name and thing,--it is to be observed that cards are called _Naibi_, by the earliest Italian writers who mention them; and that they have always been called _Naypes_, or _Naipes_, in Spain, since the time of their first introduction into that country. Now in Hindostan, where we find the word Chahar, Chatur, or Chartah, they have also the word Na-eeb, or Naib, which, judging from the sound only, appears at least as likely to have been the original of _naibi_ and _naipe_, as it is of the English _Nabob_.[30] This word _Na-eeb_ signifies a viceroy, lieutenant, or deputy, who rules over a certain district, as a feudatory who owes allegiance to a sovereign. Now, as the game of chess was known in Hindostan by the name of the Four Kings, if cards were suggested by chess, and invented in the same country, the supposition that they might have been called _Chatur-Nawaub_--the Four Viceroys, as the cognate game of chess was called the Four Kings--and that this name subsequently became changed into _Chartah-Naib_, is, at least, as probable as the derivation of Naipes from N.P., the initials of Nicolas Pepin, their supposed inventor. Though this last etymology has very much the appearance of a conundrum, propounded in jest for the purpose of ridiculing a certain class of etymologists who always seek for roots at the surface, it is nevertheless that which received the sanction of the royal Spanish Academy, and which is given in their Dictionary.[31] Several Spanish writers, however, of high reputation for their knowledge of the formation of their native language, have decidedly asserted that the word _Naipes_, signifying cards, whatever it might have originally meant, was derived from the Arabic; and if the testimony of Covelluzzo, a writer quoted in Bussi's History of the City of Viterbo, could be relied on, the question respecting the word Naibi or Naipes, and cards themselves, having been brought into Europe through the Arabs, would appear to be determined. His words are: "Anno 1379, fu recato in Viterbo el GIOCO DELLE CARTE, CHE VENNE DE SERACINIA, e chiamisi tra loro NAIB."[32] That is, "In the year 1379, was brought into Viterbo the game of cards, which comes from the country of the Saracens, and is with them called NAIB." It may be observed, that the very word here given as the Arabic name for cards still signifies in Arabia a deputy of the Sultan. Even though it may not be a word of Hindostanee origin, it may have been introduced into that language when a great portion of Hindostan was subjected to the Mahometan yoke, and when many of the Rajahs of native race were superseded by the _Naibs_ or deputies of a Mahometan sovereign.[33] There appears reason to believe that the word _Naipe_ or _Naipes_, as applied to cards, did not primarily signify _cards_ generally, but was rather a designation of the game played