not drawn into some trouble or plot by a secret
enemy; fifteen, immediate prosperity and happiness; sixteen, a pleasant
journey; seventeen, you will either be on the water, or have dealings
with those belonging to it, to your advantage; eighteen, a great profit,
rise in life, or some desirable good will happen almost immediately, for
the answers to the dice are said to be fulfilled within nine days. To
throw the same number twice at one trial shows news from abroad, be the
number what it may. If the dice roll over the circle, the number thrown
goes for nothing, but the occurrence shows sharp words impending; and if
they fall on the floor it is blows. In throwing the dice if one remain
on the top of the other, 'it is a present of which you must take care,'
namely, 'a little stranger' at hand.

Two singular facts throw light on the kind of dice used some 100 and 150
years ago. In an old cribbage card-box, curiously ornamented, supposed
to have been made by an amateur in the reign of Queen Anne, and now
in my possession, I found a die with one end fashioned to a point,
evidently for the purpose of spinning--similar to the modern teetotum.
With the same lot at the sale where it was bought, was a pack of cards
made of ivory, about an inch and a half in length and one inch in
width--in other respects exactly like the cards of the period.

Again, it is stated that in taking up the floors of the Middle Temple
Hall, about the year 1764, nearly 100 pairs of dice were found, which
had dropped, on different occasions, through the chinks or joints of the
boards. They were very small, at least one-third less that those now
in use. Certainly the benchers of those times did not keep the floor of
their magnificent hall in a very decent condition.

A curious fact relating to dice may here be pointed out. Each of the six
sides of a die is so dotted or numbered that the top and bottom of every
die (taken together) make 7; for if the top or uppermost side is 5,
the bottom or opposite side will be 2; and the same holds through every
face; therefore, let the number of dice be what it may, their top
and bottom faces, added together, must be equal to the number of dice
multiplied by 7. In throwing three dice, if 2, 3, and 4 are thrown,
making 9, their corresponding bottom faces will be 5, 4, and 3, making
12, which together are 21--equal to the three dice multiplied by 7.

CARDS.

The origin of cards is as doubtful as that of dice. All that