Page:Hocus pocus, or, The whole art of legerdemain in perfection (2).pdf/11



Take a nut, or cherry stone, and burn a hole through the side of the top of the shell, and also, through the kernel, if you will, with a hot bodkin, or bore it with an awl, and with a needle pull out the kernel, so as the same may be as wide as the hole of the shell; then write the name of the card on a piece of fine paper, and roll it up hard, then put it into the nut of cherry-stone, and stop the hole up with wax, and rub the same over with a little dust, and it will not be perceived; then let some stander-by draw a card, saying, 'It is no matter what card you draw,' and if your hands so serve you to use the card well you shall proffer him, and he shall receive the same card that you have rolled up in the nut; then take another nut and fill it up with ink, and then stop the hole up with wax, and then give that nut which is filled with ink to somebody to crack, and when he finds the ink come out of his mouth, it will cause great laughter. By this feat on the cards, great wonders might be done.

Take a pack of cards, let any gentleman draw a card, and let him put it into the pack again, but be sure that you know where to find it again, at pleasure; then shuffle the cards as before