The old French cards in question have the outlines printed in pale ink, and the colours appear to have been applied by means of a stencil. There are ten of them, all impressed on one piece of paper; and they are placed in two rows, of five each, in the following order:
VALET, KING and QUEEN of _Trèfle_. KING and QUEEN of _Carreau_. VALET, QUEEN and KING of _Pique_. QUEEN and KING of _CÅur_.
On each of those cards, except the King of CÅur, there is an inscription in Gothic letters. On the Valet of Trèfle is the name ROLAN, while the King is named FAUT-SOU,--Penniless; and the Queen, TROMPERIE,--Deceit. The King of Carreau bears the name COURSUBE, which in old romances is the name given to a Saracen King; and on the Queen of Carreau is the inscription _En toi te fie_,--Trust to thyself; "that is," says Mons. Duchesne, "ne te fie qu'en toi,--trust to thyself only. The Valet of Pique bears an inscription which Mons. Duchesne reads _ctarde_, and of which he says he can make nothing. On the Queen of Pique is an inscription which appears to Mons. Duchesne to be _te aut dict_, but the meaning of which he cannot divine. Mons. Leber, however, reads it _Léauté due_,--leal homage; and so gives it, in unmistakable characters, in the copy of this card, in his 'Etudes Historiques.' The King of Pique bears the name of APOLLIN, which is the name given to a Saracen idol in old romances. The inscription on the Queen of CÅur is _la foy et pdu_--la foi est perdue,--faith is lost.
It is supposed that there was also an inscription on the King of CÅur, but that it has been cut off, as this card is deficient in its due proportions.[244] The annexed four cards, executed in their proper colours, are copied from those given by Mons. Leber in his 'Etudes Historiques.' The whole ten are given in the 'Jeux de Tarots et de Jeux Numérales,' published by the Society of Bibliophiles Français.
Mons. Leber considers that the names Coursube and Apollin, which occur on these cards, corroborate his opinion that cards were of Eastern origin, and introduced into Europe by the Saracens, or Arabs.[245] Though agreeing with Mons. Leber, in the opinion that cards are of Eastern origin, I cannot yet see how this opinion is confirmed by two names, which, as designating a Moorish king, and a Mahometan idol, appear to have been merely the invention of a French romance writer, and to have been capriciously bestowed upon a King of Diamonds and a King of Hearts by an old French card-maker. The supposition, indeed, that figures with these names were to be found on old Arabic cards is most preposterous; there is not a shadow of evidence to show that any characters, whether real or imaginary, were ever popularly known by these names, amongst people of Arabic origin; and even if there were, the painting them upon cards would have been considered as a violation of the law of Mahomet, by whom all such representations were strictly prohibited. With equal probability, Mons. Leber might assert that cards were a Jewish invention, because the names of David, Rachel, and Judith are to be found on them; or that Piquet was invented in the time of Charlemagne, in consequence of one of the Kings bearing his name, and two of the Valets being named after two of his Paladins,--Hogier and Roland. The long note in the 'Précis Historique sur les Cartes à jouer,' pp. 13-17, on the subject of Coursube and Apollin, and Mons. Leber's more lengthy comment on it, have much of the character of that kind of discussion which was compared by Demonax to one man milking a he-goat, and another holding a sieve to catch the milk.