Tag Archives: THE ORIGIN OF PLAYING CARDS
2.1 CARTOMANCY – THE ORIGIN OF PLAYING CARDS
CARTOMANCY OR FORTUNE TELLING WITH CARDS
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2.1 THE ORIGIN OF PLAYING CARDS
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Though the origin of playing cards is shrouded in the past, it is almost certain that they were originally designed to foretell the future, and they have been used for that purpose ever since they began. Some authorities claim that they evolved from Chinese divining sticks; others, that they were adapted from the pages of a legendary “Book of Thoth” used by ancient Egyptians.
Whichever the case, they were supposedly brought to Europe by wandering tribes of gypsies, some time after the year A.D. 1300. The gypsies presumably came from India by way of Persia, where playing cards of a picture type called “atouts” were already in vogue. The gypsies, to give themselves status, intimated that they were of Egyptian origin and spoke of their homeland as “Little Egypt,” so it would not be surprising if the Persian cards had been purposely attributed to Egypt instead.
