Identifier: chessplayingcard00culi (find matches)
Title: Chess and playing cards
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Culin, Stewart, 1858-1929 United States National Museum University of Pennsylvania. University Museum
Subjects: Cotton States Exposition (1895 : Atlanta, Ga.) Chess Playing cards Games
Publisher: Washington
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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Text Appearing Before Image:
Dinon says that the Median
magi also prophesy by twigs (virga)." Dinou no doubt referred to the
baresma, of which mention is also made by Strabo.⁵
The baresma (now called barsom) was a bundle of sacred twigs which
the priest held in his hands while reciting the prayers (Plate 18). They
were formerly twigs of the pomegranate, date, or tamarind tree, or any
tree that had no thorns, and were plucked with peculiar ceremonies
which alone made them fit to be used for liturgic purposes.⁶

_________________________________________
₁ Hist. Dan., XIV, p. 288.
² Volume IV, p. 67.
³ Chaldean Magic, London, 1877, p. 237.
⁴ Scol. Nicandr. Theriac, X, p. 613.
⁵ "They (the Magi) continue their incantations * * * holding before the fire
a bundle of rods," XV, Cap. 3.
⁶ The Zend Avesta. Translated by James Darmsteter, Oxford, 1880. Vendīdād ,
III. Pt. 1, P. 22, note 2. The Parsis in India found it convenient to replace them with
brass wires, which when once consecrated can be used for an indefinite period. (Ibid.)
Report of U. S. National Museum, 1896. -Cunn. Plate 18.
Text Appearing After Image:
Admodium Referendo in Chrifto Patri RJCHARDI Dif. perm. Epif-
copo Petroburgenfi hanc Tabulam gratitudinisj ergô lubens
meritòg D.D.D. Autor TH.

MAGI WITH BARESMA.br>From Hyde's Historia Religionis Veterum Persanun.

CHESS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 809
Lenormand declares that the baresma originated in a bundle of divin-
ing wands, suck as were thrown in Chaldea and Babylonia. Madam
Ragozin,¹1 following the same line of comparison, points out the resem-
blance between the baresma (fig. l23) and a peculiar object (fig. 124)
which frequently recurs deposited upon the altar in Assyrian scenes of
worship and sacrifice. The use of it, or the nature, has never yet
been explained; but on close inspection it looks extremely like a bundle
of twigs, uneven in number, tied together
with a ribbon. Is it not likely that it may
represent the sacred divining rods and be
the original of the Avestan baresma ?

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