("I have heavy dice, I have light dice,
  From Paris, from Chartres, and from Rains.”)

It has been said that the game of dice was at first called the game of God, because the regulation of lottery was one of God’s prerogatives; but this derivation is purely imaginary.  What appears more likely is, that dice were first forbidden by the Church, and then by the civil authorities, on account of the fearful oaths which were so apt to be uttered by those players who had a run of ill luck.  Nothing was commoner than for people to ruin themselves at this game.  The poems of troubadours are full of imprecations against the fatal chance of dice; many troubadours, such as Guillaume Magret and Gaucelm Faydit, lost their fortunes at it, and their lives in consequence.  Rutebeuf exclaims, in one of his satires, “Dice rob me of all my clothes, dice kill me, dice watch me, dice track me, dice attack me, and dice defy me.”  The blasphemies of the gamblers did not always remain unpunished.  “Philip Augustus,” says Bigord, in his Latin history of this king, “carried his aversion for oaths to such an extent, that if any one, whether knight or of any other rank, let one slip from his lips in the presence of the sovereign, even by mistake, he was ordered to be immediately thrown into the river.”  Louis XII., who was somewhat less severe, contented himself with having a hole bored with a hot iron through the blasphemer’s tongue.

[Illustration:  Figs. 179 and 180.—­French Cards for a Game of Piquet, early Sixteenth Century.—­Collection of the National Library of Paris.]

The work “On the Manner of playing with Dice,” has handed down to us the technical terms used in these games, which varied as much in practice as in name.  They sometimes played with three dice, sometimes with six; different games were also in fashion, and in some the cast of the dice alone decided.  The games of cards were also most numerous, but it is not our intention to give the origin of them here.  It is sufficient to name a few of the most popular ones in France, which were, Flux, Prime, Sequence, Triomphe, Piquet, Trente-et-un, Passe-dix, Condemnade, Lansquenet, Marriage, Gay, or J’ai, Malcontent, Here, &c. (Figs. 179 and 180).  All these games, which were as much forbidden as dice, were played in taverns as well as at court; and, just as there were loaded dice, so were there also false cards, prepared by rogues for cheating.  The greater number of the games of cards formerly did not require the least skill on the part of the players, chance alone deciding.  The game of Tables, however, required skill and calculation, for under this head were comprised all the games which were played on a board, and particularly chess, draughts, and backgammon.  The invention of the game of chess has been attributed to the Assyrians, and there can be no doubt but that it came from the East, and reached Gaul about the beginning of the ninth century, although it was not extensively known