University of Virginia Library

WHY CHEATS WERE CALLED GREEKS.

M. Robert-Houdin says that this application of the term `Greek' originated from a certain modern Greek, named Apoulos, who in the reign of Louis XIV. was caught cheating at court, and was condemned to 20 years at the galleys. I think this a very improbable derivation, and unnecessary withal. Aristotle of old, as before stated, ranked gamesters `with thieves and plunderers, who for the sake of gain do not scruple to despoil their best

friends.' We afterwards find them bearing just as bad a character among the Romans. Says Juvenal —

Dr Johnson translated the words, `Bid him to h — l, to h — l he goes' — which is wrong. A difficulty is implied, and everybody knows that it is easier to go to the latter place than the former. It means that a needy Greek was capable of doing anything. Lord Byron protested that he saw no difference between Greeks and Jews — of course, meaning `Jews' in the offensive sense of the word. Among gamblers the term was chiefly applied to `decoys.'