invented by the Lydians when under the pressure of a great
famine; to divert themselves from their sufferings they contrived

dice, balls, tables, &c. This seems, however, rather a bad joke.
The afflicted Job asks--'Can a man fill his belly with the east

wind?' And we can imagine that plenty of tobacco to smoke and
'chaw' would mitigate the pangs of starvation to an army in the

field, as has been seriously suggested; but you might just as
well present a soldier with a stone instead of bread, as invite

him to amuse himself with dice, or anything else, to assuage the
pangs of hunger.

Be that as it may, time soon matured this instrument of
recreation into an engine of destruction; and the intended

palliative of care and labour has proved the fostering nurse of
innumerable evils. This diminutive cube has usurped a tyranny

over mankind for more than two thousand years, and continues at
this day to rule the world with despotic sway-- levelling all

distinctions of fortune in an instant by the fiat of its single
turn.

The use of dice was probably brought into this island by the
Romans, if not before known; it became more frequent in the times

of our Saxon ancestry, and has prevailed with almost unimpaired
vigour from those days to our own.

The Astragalos of the Greeks and Talus of the Romans were, as
before stated, nothing but the knuckle-bones of sheep and goats,

numbered, and used for gaming, being tossed up in the air and
caught on the back of the hand. Two persons played together at

this game, using four bones, which they threw up into the air or
emptied out of a dice-box (fritillus), observing the numbers of

the opposite sides. The numbers on the four sides of the four
bones admitted of thirty-five different combinations. The lowest

throw of all was four aces; but the value of the throw was not in
all cases the sum of the four numbers turned up. The highest in

value was that called Venus, in which the numbers cast up were
all different; the sum of them being only fourteen. It was by

obtaining this throw, hence called basilicus, that 'the King of
the Feast' was appointed by the Romans. Certain other throws

were called by particular names, taken from the gods, heroes,
kings, courtesans, animals; altogether there were sixty- four

such names. Thus, the throw consisting of two aces and two
treys, making eight, was denominated Stesichorus. When the

object was simply to throw the highest number, the game was
called pleistobolinda, a Greek word of that meaning. When a

person threw the tali, he often invoked either a god or his
mistress.

Dice were also made of ivory, bone, or some close-grained wood,
especially privet ligustris tesseris utilissima, Plin. H. N.).

They were numbered as at present.
Arsacides, King of the Parthians, presented Demetrius Nicator,

among other presents, with golden dice--it is said, in contempt
for his frivolous propensity to play--in exprobationem puerilis

levitatis.'[58]
[58] Justini Hist., lib. xxxviii. 9. 9.

Dice are also mentioned in the New Testament, where occurs the
word cubeia (Eph. iv. 14), ('the only word for "gambling" used in

the Bible'), a word in very common use, among Paul's kith and
kin, for 'cube,' 'dice,' 'dicery,' and it occurs frequently in

the Talmud and Midrash. The Mishna declares unfit either as
'judge or witness,' 'a cubea-player, a usurer, a pigeon-flier

(betting-man), a vendor of illegal (seventh-year) produce, and a
slave.' A mitigating clause--proposed by one of the weightiest

legal authorities, to the effect that the gambler and his kin
should only be disqualified 'if they have but that one

profession'--is distinctly negatived by the majority, and the
rule remains absolute. The classical word for the gambler or

dice-player, cubeutes, appears aramaized in the same sources into
something like kubiustis, as the following curious instances may

show: When the Angel, after having wrestled with Jacob all
night, asks him to let him go, 'for the dawn has risen' (A. V.,

'the day breaketh'), Jacob is made to reply to him, 'Art thou,
then, a thief or a kubiustis, that thou art afraid of the day?'

To which the Angel replies, 'No, I am not; but it is my turn to-
day, and for the first time, to sing the Angelic Hymn of Praise

in Heaven: let me go.' In another Tadmudical passage an early
biblical critic is discussing certain arithmetical difficulties

in the Pentateuch. Thus he finds the number of Levites (in
Numbers) to differ, when summed up from the single items, from

that given in the total. Worse than that, he finds that all the
gold and silver contributed to the sanctuary is not accounted

for, and, clinching his argument, he cries, 'Is, then, your
master Moses a thief or a kubiustis? Or could he not make up his

accounts properly?' The critic is then informed of a certain
difference between 'sacred' and other coins; and he further gets

a lesson in the matter of Levites and Firstborn, which silences
him. Again, the Talmud decides that, if a man have bought a

slave who turns out to be a thief or a kubiustis,--which has here
been erroneously explained to mean a 'manstealer,'--he has no

redress. He must keep him, as he bought him, or send him away;
for he has bought him with all his vices.

Regarding the translation 'sleight' in the A.V., this seems a
correct enough rendering of the term as far as the SENSE of the

passage goes, and comes very near the many ancient
translations--'nequitia,' 'versutia,' 'inanis labor,' 'vana et

inepta (?) subtilitas,' &c., of the Fathers. Luther has
'Schalkheit,'--a word the meaning of which at his time differed

considerably from our acceptation of the term. The Thesaurus
takes Paul's cubeia (s.v.) more literally, to mean 'in alea

hominum, i. e., in certis illis casibus quibus jactantur
homines.'[59]

[59] E. Deutseh in the Athenaeum of Sept. 28, 1867.
The ancient tali, marked and thrown as above described, were also

used in DIVINATION, just as dice are at the present day; and
doubtless the interpretations were the same among the ancients--

for all superstitions are handed down from generation to
generation with wondrousfidelity. The procedure is curious

enough, termed 'the art of telling fortunes by dice.'
Three dice are taken and well shaken in the box with the left

hand, and then cast out on a board or table on which a circle is
previously drawn with chalk; and the following are the supposed

predictions of the throws:--
Three, a pleasing surprise; four, a disagreeable one; five, a

stranger who will prove a friend; six, loss of property; seven,
undeserved scandal; eight, merited reproach; nine, a wedding;

ten, a christening, at which some important event will occur;
eleven, a death that concerns you; twelve, a letter speedily;

thirteen, tears and sighs; fourteen, beware that you are 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