CHAPTER XXIV

OF CONVEIANCE OF MONIE.

    Manipulating money is not much lower in rank than manipulating balls, but is much easier to do. The principal place to hide money is in the palm of your hand. The money must not of too large or small a circumference or it may hinder the sleights, with the best coin being a testor. However, with practice any size coin can be palmed, unless the money is very small. Then it should be held between the fingers, almost at the fingers' end, whereas a ball is held farther down and near to the palm.

TO CONVEIE MONIE OUT OF ONE OF YOUR HANDS AND INTO THE OTHER BY LEGIERDEMAINE.

    Lay a big coin on the open palm of your right hand. Place your left middlefinger on top of the coin and suddenly turn your right palm over, bending your hand a little to hold the coin palmed while drawing your right hand through your left, and closing your left as though it held the coin. To add to the effect take a knife and, opening your left hand a little without revealing the coin is not there, appear to knock the knife against the coin, actually using the other end of the knife to knock against the coin concealed in the right hand. Then use magic words, and open your hand, showing the coin has vanished. This is pretty if it is cunningly handled, as both the ear and the eye are deceived.

TO CONVERT OR TRANSUBSTANTIATE MONIE INTO COUNTERS, OR COUNTERS INTO MONIE.

    Use the sleight just described, only have a counter concealed in the left hand so that when the left hand is opened the coin will seem to have been transformed.

TO PUT ONE TESTOR INTO ONE HAND, AND AN OTHER INTO THE OTHER HAND, AND WITH WORDS TO BRING THEM TOGITHER.

    Anyone that has mastered being able to retain a coin in his right hand may show a hundred pleasant tricks by that means, and can palm two or three coins as well as one. And then you may seem to place a coin into your left hand, retaining it in the right, then pick up another coin with the right hand, and with magic words seem to bring both coins together.

TO PUT ONE TESTOR INTO A STRANGERS HAND, AND ANOTHER INTO YOUR OWNE, AND TO CONVEIE BOTH INTO THE STRANGERS HAND WITH WORDS.

    Take two coins held close together and handled as if they were a single coin and put them into a spectators hand as though they were one. Seem to place a coin into your left hand, then with magic words make it seem that you cause the coin in your left hand to join what everyone thinks was just one coin in the spectators hand. With this principle, I say, a hundred tricks can be devised.

HOW TO DOO THE SAME, OR THE LIKE FEATE OTHERWISE.

    To keep a coin hidden between your fingers serves well for the preceding trick and other purposes. Hold out your hand and have a coin laid upon its palm, then let the coin fall to your fingers' ends, putting your thumb on it to hold it in place. Retain the edge of the coin between the ends of your right middle finger and forefinger while appearing to place it into your left hand, making sure the edge of the coin does not appear through the backs of your fingers. Pick up another coin and handle the two as one, either placing them in a spectators hand as in the previous trick, or keeping them in your own right hand. Then, after words spoken, open both hands to show the one coin has joined the other.

    You must be careful to be sly: or else you discredit the art.

TO THROWE A PEECE OF MONIE AWAIE, AND TO FIND IT AGAINE WHERE YOU LIST.

    With the middle or ringinger of the right hand place a coin into the palm of your right hand and appear to throw it away, actually keeping it palmed. A confederate plants a duplicate wherever it is decided the coin should be found.

    But these things without practice can not be done, so I will describe some tricks with money which are simpler to accomplish, but still as strange as the rest: which when shown to people who do not know them are considered marvellous, but when shown to people who know how they are done are derided, and considered to be nothing.

WITH WORDS TO MAKE A GROAT OR A TESTOR TO LEAPE OUT OF A POT, OR TO RUN ALONGST UPON A TABLE.

    You may have seen a magician take a groat or a testor and throw it into a pot, or lay it down in the middle of a table, and with magic words cause the coin to leap out of the pot, or run toward or away from him along the table top. Which seems miraculous, until you know that it is done by fastening a long black hair from a woman's head to the rim of a groat by drilling a hole through it's rim. If you want to make the coin run away from you, you must have a confederate, through which all magic is improved.

    This feat is stranger if it is done at night, with a candle between the performer and his audience, which serves to keep them from seeing the hair.

TO MAKE A GROAT OR A TESTOR TO SINKE THROUGH A TABLE, AND TO VANISH OUT OF A HANDKERCHER VERIE STRANGELIE.

    A magician will also sometimes borrow a coin and mark it in front of you, and seem to place it in the middle of a handkerchief, and wind the handkerchief tightly around the coin, so you can see it. Then he will give you the handkerchief, and ask you to feel if the coin is still there, and ask you to place the handkerchief under a candlestick, or some such thing. Then he takes a shallow pan, or basin, and holds it against the underside of the table holding the candlestick and, with words of enchantment, in a short time you hear the coin fall into the basin. This done, he takes off the candlestick and, grabbing the handkerchief by one corner, he shakes it, but the money is gone! This seems as miraculous as any feat until you know how it's done.

    Sew a coin into the corner of a handkerchief. Place the corner with the coin sewn in it into the middle of the handkerchief while palming or lapping the borrowed coin. Keep the borrowed coin hidden in your hand when you place the basin under the table. Then, let the borrowed coin fall into the basin at the right moment.

A NOTABLE TRICKE TO TRANSFORME A COUNTER TO A GROAT.

    Take a groat, or some other coin, and grind it very thin on one side. Then take two counters (poker chips, etc.) and grind one very thin on one side, and the other very thin on the other side. Glue the smooth side of the groat to the smooth side of one of the counters, joining them as close as possible, especially at the edges. The edges can now be filed so they seem to be one piece, one side a groat, and the other side a counter.

    Then take a very little green wax, the green wax being the softest and therefore best, and smear it on the smooth side of the remaining ground- down counter, as it does not discolor the coin it will be attached to. Press the waxed side over the coin face, to which it will stick as if glued, and file the edges, so that it seems like a perfect entire counter, and even if a spectator handles it he will not detect it.

    Have a little wax on the forefinger and thumb of your right hand. Lay the counter on your left palm with your right hand's back up and the thumb down and, as you do, press hard with the thumb, separating the waxed shell from the glued two-sided coin. Press your thumb against the waxed shell and carry it away to hide at your pleasure. Show the glued gimmick, being certain it is counter side up, on your left palm. Close your hand and turn the trick coin over, so instead of a counter, which everyone supposes to be in your hand, you seem to have a groat, to the astonishmnet of everyone, if it is well-handled.

    A magician must have a full assortment of trick coins and the like, but he must be careful lest he forget which are which and spend the wrong coins.

CHAPTER XXV

AN EXCELLENT FEAT, TO MAKE A TWO PENIE PEECE LIE PLAINE IN THE PALME OF YOUR HAND, AND TO BE PASSED FROM THENCE WHEN YOU LIST.

    Place a little red wax, not too thin, on the nail of your middle finger. Have someone lay a coin in your palm and close your fist suddenly, pressing the waxed nail against the coin in your palm. Use words, such as: Ailif, casyl, zaze, hit mel meltat; Saturnus, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercurie, Luna: or such like, then suddenly open your hand with the fingers held lower than the palm so the coin is concealed, and the beholders will wonder where it has gone. Close your hand again, with a sudden movement, and ask if it is there or not. You can leave the coin there or take it away at your pleasure. This, if well handled, creates more admiration than any other feat of the hand. The trick works best if the wax is put directly on the coin, but then you have to lay it on your palm yourself.

TO CONVEIE A TESTOR OUT OF ONES HAND THAT HOLDETH IT FAST.

    Put some wax on the tip of your thumb, and place a coin in a spectator's hand, pressing hard with the thumb so the coin is pressed into his palm and the coin sticks to the wax on your thumb. Look the spectator in the face and when he looks back at you carry away the coin while quickly closing his hand. If you pressed hard enough he will thiaw he still feels the coin in his fist, like when you press a coin upon someones forehead, he will feel it seem to stick, especially if it is wet, even when the coin is taken away. Place two coins handled as one in your own or someone else's hand, use words of course, whereby you can make not only the beholders, but also the holders, believe that by enchantment you have brought the two coins together.

TO THROWE A PEECE OF MONIE INTO A DEEPE POND, AND TO FETCH IT AGAINE FROM WHENCE YOU LIST.

    There are a many feats to be done with money, but if you use a confederate in the audience to mark a coin, or any other thing, you can have them throw it into a river or deep pond, having previously hidden a coin with similar marks in some other secret place. Have some actual audience members fetch the hidden coin, and have the coin identified as the one you tossed into the river. There are many feats that can be accomplished through confederacy, such as telling another how much money he has in his pockets, and a hundred like effects. For accomplishing feats through confederacy Feats was the master, while he lived.

TO CONVEIE ONE SHILLING BEING IN ONE HAND INTO ANOTHER, HOLDING YOUR ARMS ABROAD LIKE A ROOD.

    It's always a good idea to mingle some gags in with your more serious miracles, such as this: Hold one coin in each hand with your arms outstretched and wide apart. Wager that you can make them come together without bringing your arms any closer to each other. After betting, keeping your arms held abroad like a rod, turn your body to one side and lay one coin on the table, then turn the other way and pick it up with the other hand, and so win your wager. This is a trick more merry than marvelous.

HOW TO RAP A WAG ON THE KNUCKLES.