The Washington herald., 1910-03-21

the nobility, chsIices the clergy. coins the
citizens. and clubs or slaves the peas
antry.
The Figure Seven.
Yet taking the entire tarot pack. the
whole is held together by a system not at
first apparent. but which is also TO be
found in Chinese packs Of seventy-seven
tablets. Thus omit the fool or zero and
there remain In the pack seventy-seven
cards. or Ike, while the atouts and the
others separated give, respectively, 7xS
and SKI. Now seven IS the sacred number
of the Orient. which occultsm uses also
to distinguish the periods OF humanitys
development from matter into spirit. and
this connection which it makes is, there
fore, worth remark. Otherwise with ia
rots It is the cards which correspond TO
European atouts that afford the clew to
the original conception. Thus in certain
Indian circular cards the pack consists Of
12c pieces in ten suits each. with its pre-
siding "atavar." or incarnation of Vishnu.
These are the Fish with fish as emblems
on the court and pip cards. the Tor
toise with tortoises, the Boar with shells,
the Man-lion with discs, the Buddha with
lotuses, the Dwarf with watering pots,
Paracurama with clubs. Rama with ar
rows. Valarama with clubs. OF these
Rama ranks as the most powerful, club
rama counting next. Here. too. the first
five suits are headed by four-handed
kings and the ten is Teckoned highest,
while TO reverse the process two-handed
kings control the last five groups IN
which the ace counts most.
Gypsies I'm Europe.
Between the gypsy and his fortune-tell-
Ing cards there at first existed relation
ship OF more significance than the attach
ment OF a workman 20 HIS tools, since,
although he relegated to his women folk
the task OF telling fortunes, this method
of divination constituted practically his
religion, which he cherished, together
with his patchwork language Moral les
sons universally conveyed by tarots suffi-
GENTLY explain this gypsy instinct toward
cards. which very likely once were frag-
ments from a mystic volume or eollec-
ton Of religious symbols in possession of
his people. Whence. then, came the gyp-
sizes. and where did they originate or get
their card lore? They themselves have
made it difficult to answer, as witness
the old rhyme:
SoTcereTs. uEElsrs sharpers. say
Where did You come from. gypsies eayf
Where do we come froml Nobody knows.
The swallow free,
Whence CONES it hitler DER land and seat
At other times the gypsies claimed to
be Egyptians or PharaOhs people out Of
Egypt AS a matter of fact. however
they had not much in common with the
indigenous Egyptians. who were cleanly
in their habits. which the Romany was
not: also stay-at-homes and farmers.
while the stroiling gypsy has never taken
kindly to agriculture. Gypsy language,
too, suggests a strictly Oriental origin.
Borrow in The Romany Rye" was hot
upon this trail when he remarked the In
dian derivation OF some words in Mr. Pc
tulengro's talk. This horse shoe master,
the most familiar type Of European gypsy
plies his trade in the manner of the IN
dian smith, who travels with a forge. &c.
and uses the same kind OF hana bellows
Whatever reason, therefore. prompted
gypsy -reticence. whether Ignorance or
that jealous dread OF interference with
their ways and language observable in
certain Indian tribes II followed that in
Europe the appearance Of the wanderers
came to be regarded as a natural vista
ton not unlike the plague. The French
first heard Of them from Bohemia and
christened them Bohemians The Dutch
assumed that they had come from Egypt.
and, not so civil to the strangers. called
them heathens In Denmark, Sweden,
and some parts Of Germany folk thought
they must be Tartars. In England they
received the designation gypsies. a con-
traction OF Egyptians Zinseu1er, az Tin
gani, was the name NEST generally ap-
Piled % them n Germany. Italy. and