[12] "... Ce n'est pas l'affaire de quelques années, ni des travaux, ni des sacrifices d'une seule vie, que de rassembler tant de chétifs débris, de pièces égarées, souillées, mutilées, informes, et dont la découverte n'est plus souvent qu'un caprice du hasard, une bonne fortune plutôt qu'une bonne action. Il faut donc attendre que cette œuvre du temps et de la persévérance soit accomplie."--Etudes Historiques, p. 60. [13] Catalogue des Livres imprimés, Manuscrits, Estampes, Dessins, et Cartes à jouer, composant le Bibliothèque de M. C. Leber, tom. i, p. 238. Paris, 1839. This library, the Catalogue of which consists of three volumes, now belongs to the city of Rouen. The cards are described in the first volume, pp. 237-48. [14] With the Latins, Ludere par impar; with the Greeks, αρτιαζειν; ραιζειν, αρτια η περιττα. "Nempe ludentes, sumptis in manu talis, fabis, nucibus, amygdalis, interdum etiam nummis, interrogantes alteram divinare jubebant, 'αρτια η περιττα'; paria, nempe, an imparia haberent."--Meursius, de Ludis Græcorum, p. 5, edit. 1622. [15] Fortune is a _parvenue_, in the Olympian circle,--of great means, but no family: Di chi figluola fusse, ò di che seme Nascesse, non si sa; ben si sa certo Ch'infino à Giove sua potentia teme. MACCHIAVELLI, _Capitolo di Fortuna_. [16] Dr. Thomas Hyde is inclined to think that the game of Astragali was known from the time of the general Deluge.--De Ludis Orientalibus. Oxon. 1694. [17] The ancient Greek game of Astragali or Astragalismus--the Tali of the Romans--appears to have been played in a manner similar to that described in the text. The names given to the different casts are to be found in Meursius, De Ludis Græcorum, under the word ΑΣΤΡΑΓΑΛΙΣΜΟΣ. [18] Πεσσοισι προπαροιθε θυραων θυμον ἐτερπον, Ἡμενοι ἐν ῥινοισι βοων οὑς ἐκτανον ἁυτοι.--_Odyss._ A. 107. The word used by Homer, ρεσσοι,--which properly means the pebbles or pieces employed in the game,--is here translated _tables_; a term, which having now become nearly obsolete as signifying draughts, may be used to denote an ancient cognate game. It might be plausibly urged by a commentator fond of discovering Homer's covert meanings, that the poet intended to censure the games of Astragalismus and Petteia,--the former as a cause of strife, and the latter as a fitting amusement for idle and dissipated persons, like the suitors of Penelope. In the twenty-third book of the Iliad, v. 87, Patroclus is represented as having killed, when a boy, though unintentionally, a companion with whom he had quarrelled when playing at Astragali or Tali: ... παιδα κατεκτανον Ἀμφιδαμαντος, Νηπιος, οὐκ ἐθελων, ἀμφ' ἀστραγαλοισι χολωθεις. It is not unlikely that an ancient piece of sculpture, in the British Museum,--representing a boy biting the arm of his companion, with whom he has quarrelled at Tali--relates to this passage.