CHAPTER XXVI

TO TRANSFORM ANIE ONE SMALL THING INTO
ANIE OTHER FORME BY FOLDING OF PAPER.

    Take a sheet of paper, or a handkerchief, and fold it in half with one half very slightly longer than the other. Place a coin in the center between the two sides right up against the fold. When you pick it up grasp it by the concealed coin, with the longer side on top. Place a different coin or a counter on the outside of the longer side against the hidden coin, and fold down with the long side inside and the short side outside. Turn the package over, maintaining your grip on both coins. When you unfold it, unfold the short edge and the hidden coin will be revealed while the other coin will now be concealed. With this many feats may be done.

    A second method is to take two papers, each three inches square. Fold each paper in thirds one way, making it one inch by three inches, and then the other way, so both packages are one inch square. Leaving the papers folded, glue the papers back to back. This way the two papers appear to be one, and whichever side you open it will appear to be the same side. Unfold both sides, then place a coin or counter in the middle of one side and refold that side. Display the paper, keeping the folded side concealed, as you may well do with your middle finger. Place a coin, of a different value than the concealed one, in the middle of the paper and fold around it. Turn the package over and unfold revealing the concealed coin. The turning of the paper is best concealed if you put it under a candlestick, or in a hat, and with magic words seem to accomplish the feat.

CHAPTER XXVII

OF CARDS, WITH GOOD CAUTIONS HOW TO AVOID COUSENAGE THEREIN: SPECIALL RULES TO CONVEIE AND HANDLE THE CARDS, AND THE MANNER AND ORDER HOW TO ACCOMPLISH ALL DIFFICULT AND STRANGE THINGS WROUGHT WITH CARDS.

    Having now dealt with money, I will consider cards, by whose witchcraft a great number of people have juggled away not only their money, but also their lands, their health, their time, and their honesty. I must not, as I could, describe the methods employed by cheaters lest they be misused. But I would caution all gamblers to beware, not only with what cards and dice they play, but also with whom they play and where. And, to let dice pass (which is good advice to anyone), a person who is skilful in making marked cards may undo a hundred wealthy men that are given to gambling, but if he has a confederate present, either in the players or the standers-by, nothing can be done to stop him. If you play among strangers beware of anyone who seems simpleminded, or drunk, for when you think to take advantage of them, perhaps encouraged by their confederates who you take for your friends, you your self will be the one taken. Beware also of bettors standing by, and lookers-on, and especially of those who bet on your side, for while they are looking into your hand without raising your suspicions, they are really signalling your hand to your opponent, against whom they appear to be betting but with whom they are actually confederates.

    In card control the main thing is to know how to shuffle them nimbly, and always keep one certain card either on the bottom, or in some known place in the stock, four or five cards from it. With this you can work wonders, for it will be easy for you to spy a card without suspicion since you immediately appear to shuffle it into the deck. In shuffling you should always keep the bottom card jogged a little before or behind all the cards laying underneath it. The card can lie a little over the forefinger, or over the little finger, which is the easier and better way. When you begin shuffling shuffle as thick as you can, and in the end throw on the stock the nether (bottom) card, with as many more as suits your purpose, always keeping your forefinger or little finger against the nether card and hold it until you have shuffled the cards again, retaining the card on the bottom. By practicing until you are perfect you can do what you want with the cards. You can keep any size stock, whether eight, twelve, or twenty cards, together and intact next to the nether card, and still shuffle them often to satisfy the curious spectators. For example, and to be brief, a few diverse feats using the one method:

HOW TO DELIVER OUT FOURE ACES, AND TO CONVERT THEM INTO FOURE KNAVES.

    Take the four aces and four jacks and alternate them, finishing with an ace on the face of the stack, then place the stack at the bottom of the deck. Shuffle the cards two or more times, retaining the bottom stack in its order and position. Hold the deck with both hands and, while keeping the audience's attention on your face as you speak, bring the deck to the edge of the table to cover the motion as you slide the second card from the bottom, one of the jacks, a little out of the deck in readiness to do a bottom second deal. Sill holding the deck with both hands display the ace on the bottom of the pack to the audience, covering the edge of the jack with your four fingers. Deal the jack as though it were the ace face down onto the table.

    Shuffle again, retaining the bottom stock. You now have two aces on the face of the deck. Take the top card of the deck, which is an indifferent card, and bury it in the middle of the deck, then do the same with the ace on the face of the deck, without revealing the identity of either card. You will now again have an ace and a jack first and second from the bottom of the deck. Repeat the moves to second deal the jack onto the table, false shuffle again, bury the top and bottom cards in the middle of the deck, and continue on until all four jacks have been dealt onto the table. The audience thinks you have dealt out the four aces, and you can now reveal the cards to have changed into jacks.

    You must be well practiced in the shuffling of the bunch, lest you overshoot your self.

HOW TO TELL ONE WHAT CARD HE SEETH IN THE BOTTOME, WHEN THE SAME CARD IS SHUFFLED INTO THE STOCKE.

    Sight the bottom card of the deck and false shuffle as you've been taught, till your card agains lies on the bottom of thre deck. Show the bottom card to the spectators, have them memorize it, and then shuffle the cards legitimately yourself, or have one of them do it. Since you already know the card you can now reveal its identity, playing it up with great circumstance and show of difficulty.

AN OTHER WAIE TO DOO THE SAME, HAVING YOUR SELFE INDEED NEVER SEENE THE CARD.

    If it would be too suspicious to overtly glimpse the bottom card, let a spectator shuffle the pack, then take back the deck and show the bottom card without seeing it yourself. Shuffle, retaining the bottom card in its position, and glimpse it when their suspicion is past by one of two possible methods. You can let some cards fall and spy the bottom card that way. Alternately, you can place all the cards into several piles, remembering which pile contains the bottom card. As you lay out the piles try to remember how many cards are in one of the indifferent piles, then place the pile with the bottom card on top of that pile, and all the other piles on top of them. If there were five cards in the indifferent pile, the chosen card will now be sixth from the bottom. You may now pull that card out of the deck, or look at it as you look through the pack and tell them its identity, without raising any suspicion.

TO TELL ONE WITHOUT CONFEDERACIE WHAT CARD HE THINKETH.

    Place three cards on a table, leaving a little distance between each card. Have a spectator think of one of the cards, and by watching his eyes you can discern which card he chose.

    You can also throw down a pair of cards, faces up, too close together to tell which one he is looking at, but as you pick them up watch his eyes to give away which card he chose.

    The eye betrays the thought.

CHAPTER XXVIII

HOW TO TELL WHAT CARD ANIE MAN THINKETH, HOW TO CONVEIE THE SAME INTO A KERNELL OF A NUT OR CHERISTONE, &C: AND THE SAME AGAINE INTO ONES POCKET: HOW TO MAKE ONE DRAWE THE SAME OR ANIE CARD YOU LIST, AND ALL UNDER ONE DEVISE.

    Burn or bore a hole through the shell of a nut or cherrystone, and also through the kernel. With the eye of a needle pull out some of the kernel so it is as wide as the hole in the shell. Take a piece of paper 1/2 or 1 inch long and write the name or number of a card on it. Fold it in half and roll it up tightly, then place it in the nut, or cherrystone, and close the hole with a little red wax, and rub it with a little dust, and it will not be noticed, especially if the nut or cherrystone is brown or old.

    Have a confederate think of the card whose identity you planted in the nut or cherrystone, and force the same card on an innocent spectator. During this action slip the nut or cherrystone into somebody's pocket, or some other strange place. Do not say you will make a person take a specific card, but rather make it appear as if doesn't matter which card they choose. If you are not already an expert at the force, able to make him take the right card even if he snatches at an other, and have trouble keeping your eye on the force card, you may mark the card so that as he reaches for the cards you may push the force card a little closer to him, holding it more loosely that the rest. If he still picks the wrong card you can drop several cards and create a pretense of having to do it over again.

    The trick is improved if a confederate has the prediction billet enclosed in a button and sewn unto a coat. The usual way to end is, after succesfully showing the prediction, spectator's card, and confederate's thought of card are all the same: Repeat the trick with a boy or troublesome patron, tell him to think of a card, and give him a nut full of ink to crack open, "which he will not refuse to doo, if he have seene the other feate plaied before".

CHAPTER XXIX

OF FAST OR LOOSE, HOW TO KNIT A HARD KNOT UPON A HANDKERCHER, AND TO UNDO THE SAME WITH WORDS.

    The Egyptian's juggling witchcraft is one I have already written of somewhat generally earlier, but now I will show some of their particular feats, not their common tricks which are so tedious, or their fortune telling which is impious, and both mere cousenages.

    Take a handkerchief and grasp two adjacent (not opposite) corners. Use the two corners to loosely tie a simple overhand knot. Pretend to tighten the knot by pulling on one end with your left hand, but use your right hand to hold onto the body of the handkerchief along with the other end and the knot will not be tightened. Then give the ends a couple of tugs, tightening the knot's appearance while still leaving it a little loose, and pull with the right hand as the left hand holds its end and the body of the handkerchief close to the knot; so it appears you have tightened it from both sides.

    To reinforce the impression that the knot is tight, have a spectator pull the end in your left hand while the right hand grips the other end and the body of the handkerchief.

    Then hold the knot with your right forefinger and thumb, and the handkerchief close to the knot on its right side with your other three fingers. Use your grip with these three fingers to hold the part of the handkerchief directly under the knot steady as your thumb and forefinger manipulate the still-loose knot in the following manner: With your left hand throw the rest of the handkerchief over the knot, and as you do so use your right thumb and forefinger to disrupt the knot by pulling out one corner. Wrap the handkerchief around the remains of the knot, hand it to a spectator, and after some words used, and wagers layed, take the handkercheif and shake it, and it will be loose.

A NOTABLE FEATE OF FAST OR LOOSE; NAMELIE, TO PULL THREE BEADSTONES FROM OFF A CORD, WHILE YOU HOLD FAST THE ENDS THEREOF, WITHOUT REMOVING OF YOUR HAND.

    Take two cords, each two feet long, and double them in the center, holding them so that the two ends of each doubled cord appear to be the ends of separate cords. Take three great beadstones, the hole of one of them being bigger than the rest. Put one beadstone over the bow of one cord, and one over the other cord. Take the remaining beadstone with the bigger hole and use it to hide the middle where the two cords come together. Keep the two bows of the cords together by placing one bow a little through the other like threading a needle, and cover the joint with the beadstone, the other two on either side of it. Done right you may toss them as you like and make it appear the beadstones are on the cord without any fraud.

    Take one end from each side and and tie an overhand knot with them. Once the overhand knot is made, which should not be a double knot, hand the cords to a spectator and have hime hold two ends in each hand. Begin to remove the beadstones, and finish by having him pull on the cords so that they end outstretched between his hands and the beadstones appear to have passed through them. But these things are so hard to explain that I will leave them, although I could show great variety.

    This must be closely done, therefore it must be no bungler's work.

CHAPTER XXX

JUGGLING KNACKS BY CONFEDERACIE, AND HOW TO KNOW WHETHER ONE CAST CROSSE OR PILE BY THE RINGING.

    Using a confederate, who must seem simple, or obstinatly set against you, bet with him that if he flips a coin while standing behind a door you will be able to tell from the sound or ringing of the money whether it comes up heads or tails. He must say "What is it?" if it comes up heads, or "What ist?" if it came up tails; or any other code you both agree upon. When he flips the coin in front of witnesses, who are coaxed into joining in on the bet, he gives you the right clue so that you can always call the side correctly. By this meanes, if you have any imagination, you may seem to do a hundred miracles, and to discover the secrets of a man's thoughts, or words spoken a far off.

TO MAKE A SHOALE OF GOSLINGS DRAWE A TIMBER LOG.

    To make a shoal of goslings (a gaggle of geese) seem to pull a timber log is done by that very means used when a cat seems to pull a fool through a pond or river, but handled somewhat further off from the beholders.

TO MAKE A POT OR ANIE SUCH THING STANDING FAST ON THE CUPBOARD, TO FALL DOWNE THENSE BY VERTUE OF WORDS.

    Have a black thread wound around a pot in a cupboard near a window, so that a confederate standing out in the courtyard and holding the other end of the thread can, upon hearing you loudly issue the cue, pull on the thread. This was Eleazer's feat of confederacy, which Josephus reported to be such a miracle.

TO MAKE ONE DANSE NAKED.

    Use a young boy as a confederate and, after charmes and the like spoken by you, have him undress himself while shaking, stamping, and crying, till completely naked. Or, if you can't persuade a confederate to completely disrobe, as he begins to stamp, shake, and unclothe you can release him from the spell, citing "respect for the modesty of the audience" as the reason for not allowing him to go on.

TO TRANSFORM OR ALTER THE COLOUR OF ONES CAP OR HAT.

    Have a confederate lend you his hat, and use certain words over it, such as: "Droch myroch, & senaroth betu baroch assmaaroth, rousee farounsee, hey passe passe", etc. Then, when you return it to him, have him appear angry and refuse to accept it, claiming he had given you a new black hat, and this was an old blue hat. Then you may seeme to remove the spell, and return it to him again, this time to his satisfaction.

HOW TO TELL WHERE A STOLLEN HORSSE IS BECOME.