Note 325 — Chapter V · THE MORALITY OF CARD-PLAYING.

From this account of instruments of play containing pictures and devises, it has been conjectured that cards were then known, and that the game was included in the general term "Alea." On this point, Barbeyrac observes, in a note: "All this pleasant conceit [about pictures and idolatry] is founded on two things: first that the board on which they played at Trictrac and Dice, was adorned with paintings; and second, that the invention of those games was attributed to Theut, or Thout, the Egyptian Mercury, who, after his death, was numbered amongst the gods."