Page:Hocus pocus, or, The whole art of legerdemain in perfection (2).pdf/22



You must have a box made on purpose, a false lid; for to describe it to you in words  pretty hard, but you may have them ready  at my house. This box must be turned like unto the egg-boxes, so that they cannot  out where it opens, and you must have a false lid to clap on and off, and on that lid glue some  seed; so before you shew the box to the company, put a bird in the box, and then the  lid, then shew the box to the company, and  will seem to be full of seed; then say to the company, 'Gentlemen, I will command all the seed out of my box, and command a living bird to appear;' so taking off the covers the bird will appear. You may be furnished with all manner of instruments, as cups, Dutch-puddings, egg-boxes, globe-boxes, melting-boxes, sixpenny-boxes, bird-boxes, and bells and bushels.

Take 21 cards, and begin to lay them down, three in a row, with their faces upwards; then begin again at the left hand, and lay one card upon the first, and so go on the right hand; and then begin at the left hand again, and so go on to the right; do this till you have laid out the 21 cards in three heaps; but as you are laying them out, bid any one think on a card, and when you have laid them all out, ask him in which heap his card is, then lay that heap in the middle betwixt the other two; then lay them all out again into three heaps as before, and as you lay them