a well-known game at cards, borrowed from the Spaniards, and played by two, by three, or by five persons, but generally by three. When three play at this game, nine cards are dealt to each party; the whole ombre pack being only forty, because the eights, nines, and tens are thrown out of the pack. There are two sorts of counters for stakes, the greater and the lesser. The last has the same proportion to the other as a penny has to a shilling. Of the greater counters each man stakes one for the game; and one of the lesser for passing for the hand, when eldest, and for every card taken in. As to the order and value of the cards, the ace of spades, called spadillo, is always the highest trump, in whatsoever suite the trump be; the manille, or black deuce, is the second; and the basto, or ace of clubs, is always the third. The next in order is the king, the queen, the knave, the seven, the six, the five, four, and three. Of the black there are eleven trumps, and of the red, twelve. The least small cards of the red are always the best, and the most of the black, except the deuce and red seven, both of which are called the manilles, and are always second when the red is a trump. The red ace, when a trump, enters into the fourth place, and is called punto; otherwise it is only called an ace. The three principal cards are called matadores, and have this privilege, that they are not obliged to attend an inferior trump when it leads; but, for want of a small trump, the person may renounce small trumps, and play any other card; and when these are all in the same hand, the others pay three of the greatest counters a piece. With these three for a foundation, the player may count as many matadores as he has cards in an uninterrupted series of trumps; and for all these the others are to pay one counter a piece. He who has the first hand is called ombre, and has his choice of playing the game, of naming the trump, and of taking in as many or as few cards as he pleases; and after him the second, &c. But if he does not name the trump before he looks on the card which he has taken in, any other may prevent him, by naming what trump he pleases. He who has the first hand should neither take in nor play, unless he has at least three sure tricks in his hand; for, as he wins the game who wins most tricks, he that can win five of the nine has a sure game. This is also the case if he win four, and can so divide the tricks that one person may win two, and the other three.

If a person play without discarding or changing any of the cards, this is called playing sans prendre; and if another win more tricks than he, he is said to win codille. The oversights in the course of the game are called beasts; and if the ombre wins all the nine tricks, it is called winning the role.

In ombre by five, which many, on account of its not requiring so close an attention, prefer to that by three, only eight cards a piece are dealt; and five tricks must be won, otherwise the ombre is beasted. Here the person who undertakes the game, after naming the trump, calls a king to his assistance; upon which the person in whose hand the king is, without discovering himself, is to assist him as a partner, and to share his fate. If, between both, they can make five tricks, the ombre wins two counters, and the auxiliary king only one; but when the counters are even, they divide them equally. If the ombre venture the game without calling in any king, this too is called playing sans prendre; in which case the other four are all against him, and he must win five tricks alone, or be beasted. The rest is much the same as by three.