cupy the station of their
predecessors, and that the son of a king should become a king, and a
general's son attain the rank of a general.' An instance of rigid
caste-law carried into a harmless recreation.

In another manuscript, chess is shewn to have something to do with a
man's fortunes: he who could watch a game without speaking, was held
to be discreet, and qualified for a government office. And conquerors
are enjoined not to boast of their success; not to say, even if such
be the case, that they have won all the games, but that they have 'won
some.' Exemplary virtue is not, however, claimed for chess-players, as
in the former instance, for some are said to be continually 'swearing
false oaths, and making many vain excuses;' and again, 'You never see
a chess-player rich, who is not a sordid miser, nor hear a squabbling
that is not a question of the chess-board.' On the other hand, there
were 'rules of politeness in chess,' which it behoved all persons to
follow:--'He who is lowest in rank is to spread the board, and pour
out the men on it, and then wait patiently till his superior has made
his choice; then he who is inferior may take his own men, and place
all of them except the king, and when the senior in rank has placed
his own king, he may also place his opposite to it.' During the game,
'all foolish talk and ribaldry' is to be avoided, and onlookers are
'to keep silence, and to abstain from remarks and advice to the
players;' and an inferior, when playing with a superior, is enjoined
to exert his utmost skill, and not 'underplay himself that his senior
may win'--an observation which what is called the 'flunkey class'
might remember with advantage. And further, chess is not to be played
'when the mind is engaged with other objects, nor when the stomach is
full after a meal, neither when overcome by hunger, nor on the day of
taking a bath; nor, in general, while suffering under any pain, bodily
or mental.'

Chess-playing without looking at the board, now taught by professors,
and supposed to be a comparatively modern art, was, as we have seen
above, known and practised many centuries ago; and among the
instructions last quoted are those for playing the 'blindfold-game.'
The player is 'to picture to himself the board as divided first into
two opposite sides, and then each side into halves, those of the king
and the queen, so that when his naib, or deputy, announces that 'such
a knight has been played to the se