Mercury was the peacemaker, or adjuster of difficulties, as well as the councillor and intercessor, for he could be appealed to with the certainty that his orders could be received by mankind, and by them could be comprehended through a sign language interpreted by his priests. He was in reality more powerful than any of the other gods taken separately, for, although they might be lavishly propitiated, they could not reply to invocations except through their messenger, Mercury. He was also the inventor of emblems, pictorial art, and language, through which he could be directly approached and his wishes communicated in response to invocations by means of the Atouts and the pip cards. Any profanation of his mysteries was rapidly revenged by his worshippers, so it is little wonder that they were not placed in town records or in early histories. Nor, if they were, would these mysteries have been mentioned as Playing Cards, for the ancient Book of Thoth was not classified as a game, and until the Temple of Toth, as well as the Serapeon, near Naples, were destroyed, compelling the exiled priests to carry on their person the emblems taken from the walls, there was absolutely nothing like a card to mention in the official records. Students, therefore, must search for descriptions of wanderers, of soothsayers, of astrologers, of fortune-tellers, of prophets or of gypsies, if they wish to discover traces of the cult of Mercury, since it was gradually and imperceptibly merged into the Playing Cards as we understand them. There were few of the homes of the rich Romans that were not adorned with a statue of this god under one of his four great attributes. The best known is, perhaps, one by John of Bologna, showing him as Caduceator, or the messenger, under which guise Mercury carries the caduceus and points with his right hand to heaven. When represented in this way, he is the bearer of news, of life, and of health. It was his wand, or caduceus, that, up to the middle of the eighteenth century, was the emblem of the medical man, who always carried his stick or staff into the sick chamber. It is still used by barbers, who display his staff, apparently wound with bloody rags, before their shops, a survival of a custom dating from the time when barbers were the dentist surgeons and "blood-letters." His wand was also representative of the stylus which was used to write on the "Tablet of Fate," for Mercury was also the god Nebo of the Babylonians, who is mentioned under this name in the Bible. He is credited with being "the writer in the Book of Fate" and, says a Cuneiform inscription, "had foretold the destiny of mankind since eternity." The stylus was also the emblem of Thoth, who wrote in the "Book of Good Works" after death. [Illustration: ATOUTS OF AN EARLY ITALIAN PACK OF TAROTS WITH TWO COURT CARDS 19 Il Sole 20 Il Giudizio 21 Il Mondo 22 Il Matto 23 Queen of Cups 24 King of Cups]