Before describing each one of the Atouts and their meanings, it must be mentioned that, while many authors have written of different packs of cards, there are but two authors who have made a study of the Tarots, and that neither of these regards the packs as toys or gamblers' instruments, but as the outcome of a great mystery or religious cult. Court de Gebelin, as early as 1773, declared: "The complete pack of Tarots, with pip and emblem cards together, were part of the Egyptian mysteries, and particularly of the worship of Thoth," and he traces the resemblance of the figures and the quality or value attributed to them to Isis, Maut, Anubis, or other personages in the Egyptian cosmogony, which theory is confirmed by Papus in his "Tarots of the Bohemians." A careful study of Sir Gardiner Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," and Mr. Rawlinson's "Ancient Egypt," shows how accurate these surmises were, for the origin of many of the figures on the Tarots can be traced in these works, although in the days of de Gebelin, Egypt was a sealed book to students. Sir G. Wilkinson stated in "Ancient Egyptians" (Vol. II, page 207): "Parchment was used for the records kept in the temples and is mentioned in the time of the eighteenth dynasty, when there were histories written on skins called Thr, or Tahar, and Thoth (Hermes) framed the laws." This proves that the rules governing mankind emanated from the temple of Thoth (as the name is indifferently spelled), and that, if it were necessary to give publicity to the mandates, it could be done outside of the temple with written characters, or ideographically. Probably letters were not used at the time, although Thoth was the god of letters and the inventor of the alphabet; but symbols and emblems were adopted, since they could be more easily understood by illiterate people. This, then, might well have accounted for the figures of the Atouts, even if there were no other reasons for them. We are indebted to M. de Gebelin for connecting the Tarots with this cult, as well as to Papus, for the latter, in his "Tarots of the Bohemians," not only accepts the statements made by the other writer, but tries to prove that the Tarot pack was "the Bible of the Gypsies" and states that "it was also the book of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus of ancient civilization." Other writers who have studied the cards believe that they "are the key to forgotten mysteries"; but none of them have pointed out the significant facts connecting the emblems of the suit cards with the heraldic attributes of Mercury, and none have noted the value and connection between the different figures of the Atouts with those of the gods of Babylonia mentioned in the Bible, yet they are so remarkable that it seems incredible that they should have been so long overlooked by those who were searching for the origin of Playing Cards.