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Excerpt from Rules of Russian Bank It is claimed that the game of Russian Bank was first played in China in the twelfth century. This claim is based upon certain well-established facts, reasonable assumptions and shrewd guesses. The year is fixed by a statement of the French missionary Evariste Regis Huc, on Page 271, Volume I, of his "Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China" where he says: "Lastly, playing cards - into the origin of which so many learned antiquarians would not have busied themselves to inquire, were it not that it marked one of the first applications of the art of engraving on wood - were invented in China in the year 1120." Other equally famous travellers and archæologists ascribe the invention to other countries and earlier times; but it is evident that this does not invalidate Huc's statement. The Chinese inventor may never have heard of the cards said to have been used in India as far back as the year 800 A.D. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.