Curse of Scotland excluded, making the 7, later called the "beer card", a "stop") but there is no direct relation with the 9. Gomme's book goes on to claim "At the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds is Pope; therefore the nine of diamonds is the curse of Scotland". "The Spectator" review considered the claim "more cogent in form than in matter". A letter written in response to "The Spectator's" book review pointed out that the saying was established well before Culloden, and preferred the Pope Joan theory to other explanations. Other explanations given in the letter were: An 1864 book
Diamonds (suit) Diamonds (suit) Diamonds or (four-colour deck) is one of the four suits of playing cards in the standard French deck. It corresponds to Bells in the German deck. The original French name of the suit is Carreau; in German it is known as Karo. In older German-language accounts of card games, Diamonds are frequently referred to as "Eckstein" ("cornerstone"). In Switzerland, the suit is still called "Egge" (="Ecke" i.e. "corner") today. The term "Karo" went into the German language in the 18th century from the French "carreau", which goes back to the Latin word, "quadrum", meaning "square" or "rectangle". The