brighter lustre, and continued to flourish to a later period, than in the far-famed schools of the East. Cordova, Seville, and Granada rivalled each other in the magnificence of their academies, colleges, and libraries; and the same may be said of Toledo, Malaga, Murcia, and Valencia.

We must now draw our chapter to a conclusion, and in so doing, we beg to throw out in the meantime, as a mere suggestion, that in all probability Chess was introduced by the Arabs into South Italy, Spain, and France in the eighth century of our æra. It is a mere inference (for we have no positive proof), but it is a very legitimate one, as we shall see hereafter in our chapter on the introduction of the game into Western and Central Europe. We have seen that the Arabs were intimate with the game early in the seventh century; and we are free to infer that they carried their knowledge of it, along with that of other arts and sciences, wherever their conquests extended.

We are much less acquainted with the treasures of Arabian literature now mouldering in the gloomy dungeons of the Escurial library, and elsewhere in Spain, than we are with the productions of the East. We have excellent authority, however, for saying that in the twelfth century Spain possessed more than a million of manuscript volumes, the produce of Arabian genius, in all departments of human knowledge. These were mostly destroyed by the bigoted and ignorant monks, and the still considerable number that escaped from the ruthless hands of these "Holy Vandals," lie buried and unnoticed in a few obscure libraries and monasteries. It is to be hoped that Spain, the land of the Cid, of Cervantes, and of Ruy Lopez, will yet rouse herself from her present state of lethargy, and unfold to an admiring

world the hidden treasures which she possesses.

Let

us hope that she will soon shake off the superstitious thraldom imposed upon her for ages by a pampered and selfish priesthood, and once more rekindle the extinguished lamp which six centuries ago shed its benign rays on benighted Europe.

CHAPTER XIII.

On the Introduction of Chess into the Lower Empire.

In the present day we believe that no man in Europe acquainted with Chess, and imbued with the least tincture of scholarship, will maintain that the ancient Greeks possessed any knowledge of the game. That they had a game of their own called TеTTеiα, played on a board with ruled lines or squares, by two persons, we are perfectly aware; but this bore no stronger resemblance to Chess than a coal-barge does to the Great Eastern. This game is said to have been invented by Palamedes at the siege of Troy, though we are warranted in concluding that it had been known before that period; for we find the suitors of Penelope playing at it in Ithaca on the return of Ulysses from Troy. The earliest mention of it occurs in the first book of Homer's Odyssey, verse 106, where, alluding to Penelope's lovers, he says

οἱ μὲν ἔπειτα

Πεσσοίσι πθοπάροιθε θυράων θυμὸν ἔτερπον

Ἡμενοι ἐν ρινοῖσι βοῶν, οὓς εκτανον αὐτοί.

Homer's meaning here is quite clear, however obfuscated by his commentators. The suitors of Penelope

1 Homeri Opera Omnia-cura Jo. Augusti Ernesti, five volumes, 8vo., Leipsic, 1824.

"were amusing themselves with the Teσσo" (or the

game

called TеTTEια) "being seated in front of the palace gates, πεττεια) upon skins of oxen which they themselves had slaughtered;" for in those good old times it was requisite in a gentleman that he should be qualified to kill his own bullock, and cook his own dinner.

1

The game here alluded to is clearly the Tetteia, a sedentary game, played by two people on a board of twenty-five squares, each player having five neσσoi, πεσσοι, or counters. This may be said to have borne a very faint resemblance to Chess, but, in reality, it was only the rudiments of our modern Draughts or Backgammon. The commentators of Homer, with regard to the above passage, refer us to Athenæus for ample light on this subject, "ubi ludus hic procorum particulatim describitur;" well then, Athenæus treats us to a description of an active game which cannot by any possibility apply to that alluded to by Homer, far less does it resemble Chess.

As the commentators, however, lay so much stress on Athenæus, I here transcribe the whole of that author's description, premising that, not having access to the original, I use the translation recently published by Mr. Bohn. The account is by no means clear or logical; but for that the author, or the translator, or both must be answerable; and Heaven knows they have a good deal to answer for.2 Athenæus says3“In Homer, too, the

1 Vide Appendix B., by Herbert Coleridge, Esq.

2 Bohn. Trans. of Athen. vol. i. p. 27. A more complete exemplification of the apathy or stupidity of commentators does not exist. It is quite evident that the game described by Athenæus was not played by men "seated on skins of oxen," as Homer clearly states; neither was it a game of dice. It was played by two equal parties of the suitors, fifty-four on each side, and seems to have resembled what Strutt describes (p. 383-4) as "Hop-Scotch" or "Taw," familiar to some of our schoolboys.

3 I think the reader will agree with me when I say that the above extract from the English Athenæus is the most obscure, slovenly and illogical piece

suitors amused themselves in front of the doors of the palace with dice; not having learnt how to play at dice from Diodorus of Megalopolis, or from Theodorus, or from Leon of Mitylene, who was descended from Athenian ancestors, and was absolutely invincible at dice, as Phanias says. But Apion of Alexandria says, that he had heard from Cteson of Ithaca what sort of game the game of dice, as played by the suitors, was. For the suitors being 108 in number, arranged their pieces opposite to one another in equal numbers, they themselves also being divided into two equal parties, so that there were on each side fifty-four, and between the men there was a small space left empty. And in this middle space they placed one man they called Penelope. And they made this the mark to see if any one of them could hit it with his man; and when they had cast lots he who drew the lot named set it. Then, if any one hit it, and drove Penelope forward out of her place, then he put down his own man in the place of that which had been hit and moved from his place. After which, standing up again, he shot his other man at Penelope, in the place in which she was a second time. And if he hit her again without touching any of the other men, he won the game, and had great hopes that he should be the man to marry her. He says, too, that Eurymachus gained the greatest number of victories in this game, and was very sanguine about his marriage."

In the Latin versions of the Odyssey, the word Teσσ016I is translated "talis," i.e. " dice," evidently confounding two distinct games, the TETTеia and the Kußeia the latter

πέττεια

of English composition I ever met with in my whole life. It is an excellent illustration of the Scottish "gudeman's" idea of metaphysics, viz., “Ye see, Sir, when ae man canna mak oot what an ither man writes, and when the ither man himsel kens naething avâ aboot it, that is just what they câ metafeesics."