ed wooden basin with a moveable rim, and around it are small
compartments, numbered to a certain extent, namely 38, alternately red
and black in irregular order, numbered from one to 36, a nought or zero
in a red, and a double zero upon the black, making up the 38, and each
capable of holding a marble. The moveable rim is set in motion by the
hand, and as it revolves horizontally from east to west round its axis,
the marble is caused by a jerk of the finger and thumb to fly off in a
contrary movement. The public therefore conclude that no calculation
can foretell where the marble will fall, and I believe they are right,
inasmuch as the bank plays a certain and sure game, however deep, runs
no risk of loss, and consequently has no necessity for superfluously
cheating or deluding the public. It also plays double, that is, on both
sides of the wheel of fortune at once.

'When the whirling of both rim and marble cease, the latter falls,
either simultaneously or after some coy uncertainty, into one of
the compartments, and the number and colour, &c., are immediately
proclaimed, the stakes deposited are dexterously raked up by the
croupier, or increased by payment from the bank, according as the colour
wins or loses. Now, the two sides or tables are merely duplicates of one
another, and each of them is divided something like a chess-board
into three columns of squares, which amount to 36; the numbers advance
arithmetically from right to left, and consequently there are 12 lines
down, so as to complete the rectangle; as one, therefore, stands at the
head, four stands immediately under it, and so on. At the bottom lie
three squares, with the French marks 12 p--12 m--12 d, that is, first,
middle, third dozen. The three large meadows on either side are for red
and black, pair and odd, miss and pass--which last signify the division
of the numbers into the first and second half, from 1 to 18, and from
19 to 36, inclusive. If a number be staked upon and wins, the stake is
increased to six times its amount, and so on, always less as the stake
is placed in different positions, which may be effected in the following
ways--by placing the piece of gold or silver on the line (_a cheval_,
as it is called), partly on one and partly on its neighbour, two numbers
are represented, and should one win, the piece is augmented to eighteen
times the sum; three numbers are signified upon the stroke at the end or
beginning of the numbers that go acros