in which it points to the shrine, are considered to have replied to the inquirer. The Chariot of the Atouts was, under certain conditions, supposed to represent Osiris. It was also called "the chariot of Mercury," in the sense that he was the messenger of Mars when war was to be proclaimed, or when his caduceus was used as a flag of truce. Seven was always considered by the Egyptian savants a mystical number, so this card played an important part in occult science. Count Emiliano di Parravicino, in his essay published in the _Burlington Magazine_, December, 1903 (page 238), says: "Mgr. Antonio Dragoni (1814) suggests that the Atouts, numbering twenty-one [not counting the Joker (_Fou_), which has no number], represent the Egyptian doctrine beloved by Pythagoras, of the perfect number Three and the mythical number Seven. Hence, Thoth, the Mercury of the Egyptians, forms with the pack of pip cards his book or picture of the creation of three classes of images, which symbolize the first three ages of the world--_i. e._, the golden, the silver, and the bronze. Each of these three classes is to represent in its seven divisions a greater reference or mysticism, a mysterious book of the highest value in the art of divination, since this book of unbound leaves contained the key to all mysteries, although its contents were undecipherable to all but those taught in the temples of Thoth." This proves that other thinkers besides Papus and de Gebelin had come to the same conclusions from their study of the Tarot pack, although without having the benefit of exchanging views on the subject. The Babylonians believed in seven evil spirits, as the following prayer, translated from a cuneiform tablet, will prove: Seven are they. They are seven, The same in the mighty deep; And Seven are they in heaven, 'Though in water, sometimes they sleep. They are neither male, nor female, These awful spirits that fly, But like destructive whirlwinds, They swirl across the sky. Without a home or offspring, Compassion and mercy are nil, Since prayers or supplications, They neither hear nor feel. Like wild beasts bred in the mountains, They defy both gods and men, Polluting even the fountains The rivers, the marshes, the fen. Evil are they, strangely evil, In temples, in cities, in homes; For Seven are they, cruel Seven, With weird and terrible forms.