[Illustration: Fig. 215.--Card of Italian _Tarots_, from the Pack of the _minchiate_. (Collection of Playing-Cards, Bibl. Imp., Paris.)] The Spaniards must certainly have received the Oriental _naïb_ from the Moors and Saracens a long time prior to the introduction of this game into Europe at Viterbo; but we have no written proofs which certify to the existence of cards among the Saracens of Spain. The first document in which they are mentioned is the edict of John I., of the date of 1387, to which reference has been made. Certain _savants_ have endeavoured to ascertain the signification of the four suits of the Spanish _naypes_, and have fancied that they could distinguish in them a special symbolism. In their view, the _dineros_, _copas_, _bastos_, and _spadas_, denoted the four estates which composed the population: the merchants, who have the money; the priests, who hold the chalice or cup; the peasantry, who handle the staff; and the nobles, who wear the sword. This explanation, although ingenious, does not appear to us to be based on any very solid foundation. The signs or suits of the numeral cards were fixed upon in the East, and Spain as well as Italy merely adopted them without taking much trouble to penetrate into their allegorical meaning. The Spaniards became so addicted to this game that they soon preferred it to any other recreation; and we know that when the companions of Christopher Columbus, who had just discovered America, formed their first settlement at St. Domingo, they almost instantly set to work to make playing-cards out of the leaves of trees. [Illustration: Figs. 216 and 217.--The “Three” and “Eight” of “Bells.” German Cards of the Sixteenth Century. (Bibl. Imp. of Paris. Print-Room.)] There can be no doubt that playing-cards very soon made their way from Italy into Germany; but as they advanced towards the North they almost immediately lost their Oriental characteristics and Saracenic name. There is, in fact, no longer any etymological trace to be found in the old German language of the words _naïb_, _naïbi_, or _naypes_. Cards were called [Illustration: Figs. 218 and 219.--The “Two of Bells” and the “King of Acorns,” taken from a Pack of Cards of the Sixteenth Century, designed and engraved by a German Master. (Bibl. Imp. of Paris. Print-Room.)]