In giving a separate description of each of those packs, it seems most proper to begin with that for which the highest antiquity is claimed. This pack is one of the two which consist of eight suits; and, from a memorandum which accompanies it, I have obtained the following particulars respecting a former possessor and the presumed antiquity of the cards. They formerly belonged to Captain D. Cromline Smith, to whom they were presented, about the year 1815, by a high-caste Bramin, who dwelt at Guntoor, or some other place in one of the northern Sircars of Southern India. The Bramin considered them to be a great curiosity, and informed Capt. Smith that they had been handed down in his family from time immemorial. He supposed that they were a thousand years old, or more; he did not know if they were perfect, but believed that originally there were two more colours or suits. He said they were not the same as the modern cards; that none knew how to play at them; and that no books give any account of them. Such is the sum of the Bramin's information. The writer of the memorandum,--looking at the costume of the figures and the harness of the animals, and considering that the Mahometans do not tolerate painted images,[47]--concludes that these cards are Hindostanee. The pack consists of eight suits, each suit containing two honours and ten common cards--in all ninety-six cards. In all the suits the King is mounted on an elephant; and in six, the Vizier, or second honour, is on horseback; but in the blue suit,--the emblem or mark of which is a red spot with a yellow centre--he rides a tiger; and in the white suit,--the mark of which appears like a grotesque or fiendish head,--he is mounted on a bull. The backs of all the cards are green. The following are the colours of the _ground_ on which the figures are painted in the several suits, together with the different marks by which the suits and the respective value of the common cards were also distinguished. COLOURS. MARKS. 1. FAWN Something like a pineapple in a shallow cup. 2. BLACK A red spot, with a white centre. 3. BROWN A "tulwar," or sword. 4. WHITE A grotesque kind of head. 5. GREEN Something like a parasol without a handle, and with two broken ribs sticking through the top. 6. BLUE A red spot, with a yellow centre. 7. RED A parallelogram with dots on it, as if to represent writing (shortest side vertical). 8. YELLOW An oval.