With respect to the term Naibes, or Naipes, there are two etymologies which seem deserving of notice here; the one propounded by Bullet, in his 'Recherches Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer;' and the other by Eloi Johanneau, in his 'Mélanges d'Origines Etymologiques.' Mons. Bullet thinks that cards are of French origin, and that they were not invented before the introduction of linen paper,--his chief reason for fixing this epoch as a ne-plus-ultra being evidently founded on their Latinised name, _chartæ_. From France he supposes that they passed into Spain by way of Biscay, and acquired in their passage the name of Naipes. This word, according to Mons. Bullet, is derived from the Basque term _napa_, signifying "plat, plain, uni," which very properly designates cards, and corresponds with the Latin _charta_. This etymology is fanciful rather than felicitous; if _charta_ were synonymous with _mensa_,--a table,--the Basque term _napa_ would appear to correspond more nearly with it. But the Basque language, like the Celtic, is one peculiarly adapted for etymological speculation; a person who understands a little of it, may readily grub up in its wild fertility a root for any word which he may not be able to supply with a radical elsewhere.[40] Mons. Eloi Johanneau is of opinion that cards are of much higher antiquity than they are generally supposed to be; and with respect to their Spanish name, Naipes, the origin of it, is, to him, too plain and simple to require the aid of any scarce or voluminous works to prove it; it is, in short, one of those truths which, to be perceived, requires only to be enounced. This incontestable truth is, that the word _naipe_, a card, comes from the Latin _mappa_, the _m_ being merely changed into an _n_. Of this antithesis, or change of a letter, several examples are produced; as the French _nappe_, a table-cloth, also from _mappa_; _nefle_ and _neflier_ from _mespilum_ and _mespilus_; and _faire la Sainte Mitouche_, for _faire la Sainte Nitouche_. Then _naipe_ and _mappa_ have an analogous meaning. Naipes, Playing Cards, scarcely differ from a _map_,--which is a geographic card,--or, except in point of size, from a _nappe_, which is spread like a chart on the table. In ancient times, too, mappa signified the _tessara_, or signal, which was displayed at the games of the circus. Tertullian, speaking of those games in his 'Diatribe De Spectaculis,' says: "Non vident missum quid sit. _Mappam_ putant; sed est diaboli ab alto præcipitati gula,"--"They perceive not what is displayed. They think it the _mappa_, but it is the jaws of the devil." It is evident from this, that in Tertullian's estimation, there was something very wicked in the _mappa_; and the bad odour which, even at that early period, the word was in, appears to have been retained by its presumed derivative, _naipes_, ever since: _Servavit odorem diu_. But then for the grand discovery: Mons. Johanneau finds, in Ducange's Glossary, a