We may feel a little
surprised to hear that Chosroes' chess men were worth an amount
equivalent to one million of our money in the present day; we
may doubt, or disagree with the opinions attributed to Hippocrates,
or to Galen; that cures were effected, or even assisted of
such complaints as diarrhea and erysipelas by the means of chess;
or, that, as the Persian suggests it has been found a remedy of
beneficial in many ailments from the heart ache to the tooth ache.
We may doubt whether the two Lydian brothers, Lydo and
Tyrrhene, in the story of Herodotus really diminished the pangs
of hunger much by it; but, amidst all our incredulity, we can
believe, and do believe, that Chosroes and chess, Harun and
chess, Charlemagne and chess, Al Mamun and chess, Canute and
chess, are as well authenticated and worthy of credit, as other
more important incidents found in history, notwithstanding that
encyclopaediasts and writers down from the days of the Eastern
manuscripts, the Persian Shahnama and Anna Comnenas history
to the days of Pope and Philidor, and of the initiation of
Sanskrit knowledge among the learned, never mention their names
in connection with chess as exponents of which the Ravan, king of
Lanka of the Hindoo law books, the famous prince Yudhisthira
and the sage Vyasa of the Sanskrit, and Nala of the poems, and
in more modern accounts, Indian King Porus, Alexander the
Great and Aristotle, are far more reasonable names inferentially,
if not sufficiently attested, than those cherished by traditionists
such as Palamedes, Xerxes, Moses, Hermes, or any of the Kings of
Babylon or their philosophers.
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