"It may be necessary to remark that the Aces of Spades are printed at the Stamp Office, whether the cards be for exportation or for the home market,--the paper for printing being sent to the Stamp Office by the maker; and an account of the number of aces furnished by the Stamp Office is kept by the authorities. Before cards are delivered by the manufacturer an officer is sent to seal them, and a duty of a shilling per pack is paid monthly for those that are sold for home consumption. But as they are not liable to duty when intended for exportation, the card-maker enters into a bond that they shall be duly shipped, and an officer is sent to see them put into the case, and to seal it up." FOOTNOTES: [220] He says that the name is pure Egyptian, and that it is composed of the word TAR, signifying road, way; and the word RO, ROS, ROG, which means royal: thus we have Tarog--Tarocchi--the Royal Road. By such a road as this Mons. Court de Gebelin seems to have arrived at much of his "recondite knowledge of things unknown."--See his Monde Primitif, huitième livraison, Dissertations mêlées: "Du jeu de tarots, où l'on traite de son origine, où l'on explique ses allégories, et où l'on fait voir qu'il est la source de nos cartes modernes à jouer."--Tome i, pp. 365-94. 4to, Paris, 1781. [221] "Une dernière citation achevra de démontrer que les cartes et les naibi sont bien la même chose; le Traité de Théologie de Saint Antoine, évêque de Florence en 1457, porte: _Et idem videtur de chartis vel naibis_; et encore dans un autre endroit du même ouvrage: _De factoribus et venditoribus alearum et taxillarum et chartarum et naiborum_."--Précis Historique et Explicatif sur les Cartes à jouer, prefixed to the specimens of cards published under the title of 'Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numérales, du XIV^{me} au XVIII^{me} Siècle,' by the Society of Bibliophiles Français. Imperial 4to, Paris, 1844. [222] The word Tarot has been supposed to be a corruption of Tarocchi. Cards marked on the back with lines crossing lozenge-wise, and with little spots, are called Cartes Tarotées; and in France card-makers appear to have been formerly called Tarcotiers. Menestrier conceives that it was from these "lignes frettées en forme de rezeuil" cards were named _Tarcuits_, and _Cartes Tarautées_. He says that Tare,--_defaut_, _déchet_, _tache_,--signifies properly a hole, _un trou_; and he derives it from the Greek τερειν, to bore. From _Tare_ he also derives _Tariff_, a _ruled_ book for entering the duties on goods. Mons. Duchesne says that Tarot "vient en effet de l'Italien _tarrochio_, dont à la vérité nous ignorons encore la signification." [223] Mons. Duchesne thus accounts for those cards being called Atous: "Ces cartes sont dites _a tutti_, à tous, c'est-à-dire supérieures à toute autre, et n'appartenant à aucune couleur." In other games at cards, the French _Atout_ has the same meaning as the English _Trump_.