games of mixed skill and chance,
or even on the fortuitous throws of dice. Of course, in spite of all
calculations, there were miserable failures--frightful losses. The
polite gamester, like the savage, did not scruple to hazard the dearest
interests of his family, or to bring his wife and children to poverty,
misery, and ruin. He could not give these over in liquidation of a
gambling debt; indeed, nobody would, probably, have them at a gift; and
yet there were instances in which the honour of a wife was the stake of
the infernal game!.... Well might the Emperor Justinian exclaim,--'Can
we call _PLAY_ that which causes crime?'(14)

(14) Quis enim ludos appellet eos, ex quibus crimina oriuntur?--_De
Concept. Digest_. II. lib. iv. Sec. 9.

CHAPTER II. GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT HINDOOS.--A HINDOO LEGEND AND ITS MODERN
PARALLEL.

The recent great contribution to the history of India, published by Mr
Wheeler,(15) gives a complete insight into this interesting topic;
and this passage of the ancient Sanskrit epic forms one of the most
wonderful and thrilling scenes in that most acceptable publication.

(15) The History of India from the Earliest Ages. By J. Talboys Wheeler.
Vol. I.--The Vedic Period and the Maha Bharata.

As Mr Wheeler observes, the specialties of Hindoo gambling are worthy
of some attention. The passion for play, which has ever been the vice of
warriors in times of peace, becomes a madness amidst the lassitude of a
tropical climate; and more than one Hindoo legend has been preserved
of Rajas playing together for days, until the wretched loser has been
deprived of everything he possessed and reduced to the condition of an
exile or a slave.

But gambling amongst the Hindoos does not appear to have been altogether
dependent upon chance. The ancient Hindoo dice, known by the name of
coupun, are almost precisely similar to the modern dice, being thrown
out of a box; but the practice of loading is plainly alluded to, and
some skill seems to have been occasionally exercised in the rattling of
the dice-box. In the more modern game, known by the name of pasha, the
dice are not cubic, but oblong; and they are thrown from the hand either
direct upon the ground, or against a post or board, which will break the
fall, and render the result more a matter of chance.

The great gambling match of the Hindoo epic was the result of
a conspiracy to ruin Yudhishthira, a successful warrior, the
representative of