art or music has. They have survived for hundreds of years because of the pleasure in playing the

game, their use in gambling and their popularity with royalty. The game arrived in Europe from Eastern Asia, where it originated, mostly through trade routs and migrating peoples. The process of card making became an industry due to the wide spread appeal of card games in Europe. The different suits described the social structure of the time.

Although the origin of playing cards is unknown, most evidence indicates they originated in China. Early playing cards were first printed during the Tang dynasty, which was AD 618- 906. Early Chinese money and playing cards were identical and used inter-changeably. Chess was thought to have been a respectable game where as cards were played by disreputable gamblers. One theory put forward states that cards were invented in AD 1120 by emperor Seun-Ho to keep his concubines occupied when he was tired. Another story claims that an Indian matron created them to keep her husband from pulling his beard out, when he was frustrated. Cards were first mentioned in detail, in Switzerland by a monk named John of Rh

t likely is they were brought back from China by the famous explorer Marco Polo. This is unlikely because trade with China had ended long before John of Rheinfelden described cards as new. Another theory is that cards were brought back from the east by returning crusaders, who were not entirely devoted to reclaiming holy-land. This is improbable because the crusades were effectively over by 1300. Other suggestions that gypsies introduced them fail for the opposite reason. Gypsies did not arrive until some forty years after the known arrival of cards, which is in 1377. They could have also been brought to Spain by invading Moors and Saracens. The most conclusive evidence to date is that cards came to Europe 'From the Mameluke of Egypt'. A partially complete pack of cards was discovered at the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul. The reconstructed deck had 52 cards, with numerals one to ten, the suits of swords, cups, coins, and polo-sticks. The court cards were labeled King, Dep!

Early Chinese playing cards imitated paper money notes. The notes bore symbols of their value. These symbols became the suit symbols. Chinese money-derived cards had four suits: coins, strings (of coins), myriads (of strings), and tens (of myriads). Not all cards used the same suits. It is believed that European cards were copied from such a pack with four suits. On some Chinese playing cards and dominos was characters from 'The Story of the River's Banks', which was an old Chinese folk tale. The suits for the disc shaped Indian cards were of the ten incarnations of one of the gods of creation, Vishnu. Each incarnation was a suit and was represented by an animal or object. The ten suits were fish, tortoises, boars, lions, dwarfs, axes, monkeys, cows, shells and swords. European suits represented the four ways of life in the medieval time; the church, military, farmers and merchants, and peasants. Frances greatest contribution to cards is it suits system that is still used toda!

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Jacoby, Oswald and Albert Morehead, The Fireside Book of Cards, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1957.

Bryan Bieler, Steven, Hoyle Classic Card Games, Un

Some common words found in the essay are:
Eastern Asia, Pique French, Germany European, John Rheinfelden, Europe Regardless, Banks' Chinese, Shanghai China, Trefles Coeurs, Swiss German, Italy Sicily, playing cards, card games, fifteenth century, cards suits, history playing cards, derived french, imported cards, european cards, packs cards, chinese playing, game cards, chinese playing cards,
Approximate Word count = 1478
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)