Bête

Bête, la Bête (French: Jeu de la Bête), Beste or la Beste (Jeu de la Beste), originally known as Homme or l'Homme (Jeu de l'Homme), was an old, French, trick-taking card game, usually for three to five players. It was a derivative of Triomphe created by introducing the concept of bidding. Its earlier name gives away its descent from the 16th-century Spanish game of Ombre. It is the "earliest recorded multi-player version of Triomphe".

During the 17th century, the Ombre concept of bidding was incorporated into Triomphe resulting in the game initially called l'Homme ("Man") and, later, la Beste or la Bête (German Labet, Dutch LaBate, English Beast). La Bête, or just Bête or Beast in English, later gave rise to the variants of Mouche and Mistigri, the latter still being played today. It may also have been antecedent to the games of the Rams family although it does not share their characteristic of allowing players to drop out of the current deal if they consider their hand to be too poor.

Bête was a gambling game, often played for small stakes, but was also played as a social and family game. It is named after the bête, a term that referred to the penalty for failing to take the required number of tricks or for various infringements. The term, bête, came to be used in both French and German in various other card games as the name for the stake on a game, the penalty for losing and the loser himself.