Читать книгу Telling Fortunes by Cards - Мохаммед Али - Страница 7

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While any ordinary pack of playing cards sold in the usual stores can be used, it is best to secure, if possible, a pack whose face cards have only a single head, inasmuch as when, in dealing, cards come out reversed they bear a different signification in some cases, than when upright. When, however, the usual double-headed cards are used it is only necessary to make a distinctive mark on the top end of the faces of certain ones to secure the same result as though the special fortune-telling pack were employed. This mark may be a simple dot or cross with pencil or pen, and should be made at one end of the card only, which will then become the top of the card in all cases, and cards coming out in the deal with this mark at their tops will be considered as upright, and with the marked end down, as reversed. The only cards that need to be thus distinguished are: The face cards of each suit; the ace, eight, nine and ten of diamonds. (The spot cards below the seven in any suit are, in most cases, not used. Where they are employed, their reversal has no significance.) The top of the seven of diamonds, and the other suits, is considered to be the end that has the extra central pip. Spot cards of the three suits other than diamonds usually require no mark to determine their top or bottom. The "handles" of all spades and clubs, and the sharp points of all hearts, point downward when those cards are upright; hence when they point upward the cards are considered as reversed. If, however, any other cards than those here mentioned are so printed as to make it difficult to distinguish the top from the base, you should mark them at the top.