Page:New hocus pocus.pdf/12

12 prove to be the card thought of. You must never lay out your cards less than three times, but as often above that number as you please. This trick may be done with-out your seeing the cards at all, if you handle and count them carefully. To diversify the trick, you may use a different number of cards, but the number chosen must be divisible by three, and the middle card, after they have been thrice dealt as directed, will always be the one thought of; for instance, if done with fifteen cards, it must be the eighth, and so on ; when the number is even, it must be the exact half; as if it be twenty-four, the card thought of will be the twelfth, &c.

Take a new clean pen that was never writ with, and dip in your own water as you do ink, then strip up your shirt sleeve above your wrist, and upon your arm write your name, or any mark, and then let it dry on your skin, and nothing will be seen, then put down your sleeve and button your wrist; do this privately, and it will cause some wonder; then take a piece of white paper and write your name, or the mark thereon with another pen of black ink (but let it be written as like the other as you can) then take the paper and burn it, and lay the ashes on a table, and