Nor, again, is there any record of when cards became the tools of gamblers, who used them for games of chance, although their consultation might always have partaken of the elements of "chance," but in a very different way. However, it is well known that the introduction of Christianity into Rome gradually caused the deities of Olympus to be disregarded, so that those who still worshipped the gods of their ancestors did so in secret, and when St. Paul set foot at Pozzuoli, close to the temples of Osiris and Mercury, the first step was taken towards the downfall of the ancient rites. It is quite natural, therefore, that writers on the origin and history of Playing Cards have found no record of their invention, no monument to their inventor, and no cradle at their birthplace, since they looked solely for the cards that were familiar to them and for games played with those cards, while they failed to recognise that the cards were part of a cult and were the heraldic emblems of Mercury (as displayed on the pip cards) and those of ancient Egyptian gods (as depicted on the Atouts), and, therefore, these writers declare that no link exists between the Italian Tarots of the present day and the great Book of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, while they acknowledge that Playing Cards owe their invention to the Egyptians, who, having inherited the "men portrayed upon the walls" from the Babylonians and the traditions of Nebo, "the one who writes the tablets of fate," elaborated the ceremonies, simplified their code, and introduced them to Europe, first through the priests of the Serapeon, and then, by means of the Tarots, to other parts of the world. Some claim that the gypsies were originally the initiates of the temple of Thoth, and that it was they who carried Playing Cards as a means of divination through Europe. One of their customs is to demand that the palm of the right hand be crossed with a piece of money before beginning to read a fortune; and by some this custom is supposed to date from the time when the fortune-teller demanded from his clients an oath of secrecy, which was ratified by making the sign of the cross. Unless there was some such meaning originally attached to the custom, there would seem to be no reason for this performance being enacted in connection with fortune-telling with cards, and as far as is known with no other transaction in the commercial or nomadic world.