the Chinese, the most debauched of gamesters.
From them, too, they have acquired the knowledge
of cards, and of a kind of faro. From the Portuguese
they have acquired the knowledge of dice, as the
name ( dadu) implies. Among the Javanese, the
only game of pure hazard of native origin, consists
in guessing the number of beans, of certain description,
which the players hold in their hands. It
is called by them Talagatari.
Of the sedentary games of skill, the native ones
are a variety of descriptions played on checkers
resemblinog our drau&ghts.
Of the celebrated game of chess, supposed to
have been invented by the Hindus, I must on this
account say more than would otherwise be necessary.
The collateral evidence afforded on this subject,
from an examination of its history among the
Indian islanders, does not tend to corroborate the
hypothesis of chess having been invented by the
Hindus. The Javanese, the tribe with whom the
intercourse with the ancient Hindus was most busy,
hardly know the game but by report, and even
thus far they know it only by its Persian name.
The Malays, 011 the contrary, know the game well,
and are fond of i t ; but then they have acquired it
in comparatively recent times, and in their modern
intercourse with the Telingas. The evidence of
language not only shows this, but shows also that
the Telingas must themselves have borrowed
it from the Persians. Chatur, the name of the
game, is Persian, and not Indian. Sah, “ check,
is the Persian word shah, king, and the only way
in which the Indian islanders can pronounce it.
Bidah, a pawn, is but a corruption of the Persian
word piadah, a foot-soldier; ter, the Malayan
name of the castle, is of the vernacular language of
Kalinga; and mat is not, as some have imagined, a
corruption of the Malayan word mati, dead, but the
true Persian word for check-mate, borrowed by ourselves,
and still more accurately by the French.
Is it not probable, that, had the Hindus, when
they enjoyed a monopoly of the intercourse with
the Indian islanders, known the game of chess,
they would have recommended themselves to a
people passionately addicted to play, by instructing
them in this interesting game? They did not instruct
them ; and the probability therefore is, that
they themselves did not understand it. Sir William
Jones acknowledges, that no account of such
a game exists in the writings of the Brahmans.
But of all the species of gaming, that to which
the Indian islanders are most fondly addicted is
staking on the issue of the combat of pugnacious
animals. The cock, from his superior courage, is
the great favourite ; and the diversion of cock-
fighting is most especially in vogue among the
Malays, the people of Celebes, and the Balinese.
To these tribes the game-cock is such an object of