Note 137 — Chapter III · THE PROGRESS OF CARD-PLAYING.

Pascasius Justus, in his work entitled Alea, first published in 1560, relates that though he frequently felt difficulty in obtaining a supply of provisions when travelling in Spain, he never came to a village, however poor, in which cards were not to be found. The prevalence of card-playing in Spain about the middle of the sixteenth century is further shown in a work entitled 'Satyra invectiva contra los Tahures: en que se declaran los daños que al euerpo, y al alma y la hazienda se siguen del juego de los naypes. Impressa en Sevilla, en casa de Martin de Montesdoca, Año de M.D.LVII.' This work is erroneously ascribed by Antonio, in his Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, to Dominic Valtanas, or Baltanas, a Dominican friar, at whose instance the edition referred to was printed. The author was Diego del Castillo, who also wrote another work on the same subject, entitled 'Reprobacion de los Juegos,' printed at Valladolid in 1528.—The author derives the word Tahur, a gamester, from Hurto, theft, robbery, by transposing the syllables, and changing o into a: