name was called out, then the prize or blank. The
first ticket and the last in the urn with the names, won something; at
Zurich, a ram; those who took many tickets got them cheaper. In 1504,
at Zurich, the prizes were already in money; but in Germany the
pleasant custom still continued at the prize-shootings for another
century, of playing for artistic objects of value; the love of gambling
was great, the women especially thronged round the urn; and, if one may
judge from the lists of prizes that have been preserved, the inferior
clergy of the old church amused themselves with fortune's um. Seldom,
in the sixteenth century, did the urn fail to appear at the greater
prize-shootings; it was an important concern, and the chroniclers
recorded assiduously the prizes and fortunate winners. Thus, only to
mention one year, there were, in Central Germany alone, in 1540, two
urns of fortune; for there were prize-shootings at Frankenhausen and
Hof; at the latter the drawing lasted five days; in both cities the
last prize from the urn was the jocose prize--a sow, which had been
introduced from the shooting-ground into the urn of fortune. In 1575,
at Strasburg, the urn of fortune was very considerable; there were 275
prizes--the first, value 115 gulden; the sale of the tickets was so
rapid that they were obliged to increase the number and the prizes in
equal proportion. Count Palatine Casimir, an enterprising prince, had
bought 1100 tickets, but did not gain much. The Zuricher guests also,
with their pot of porridge, took some thousand tickets--in the name of
the fortunate ship and of their native city--which, together, cost 101
gulden; for this they won silver to about half the amount. The drawing
lasted fourteen days, and the throng of people about the urn was so
troublesome that at last they were obliged to use force to secure the
urn.

From these beginnings arose the lottery in Italy and Holland, in the
sixteenth century; first, they played for wares, but soon for money,
and it was used as a source of income by individuals, and then by
communities. The first money lottery at Hamburg was established in
1615.

Such was the course of the great feasts of arms of our ancestors. For
weeks did the multitude buzz about the shooting-ground and booths, and
in the streets of the hospitable city. When the society of marksmen had
finished the prescribed number of shots, all those to whom an equal
number of circle shots had been scored had