The Juggler's Oracle; or, The Whole Art of Legerdemain Laid Open / Consisting of all the newest and most surprising tricks and experiments with cards, cups and balls, conveyance of money and rings, boxes, fire, strings and knots; with many curious experiments by optical illusion, chymical changes, and magical cards, &c.

by H. Boaz

This feat is the stranger if it be done by night, a candle being placed between the spectators and the juggler, for by that means their eyes are hindered from discerning the deceit.

To make a Sixpence sink through a Table, and to vanish out of a Handkerchief.

A juggler will sometimes borrow a sixpence and mark it before you, and seem to put the same in the middle of a white handkerchief, and wind it so as you may the better see and feel it; then he will take the handkerchief and bid you feel whether the sixpence be there or no; and he will also require you to put the same under a candlestick, or some such like thing; then he will send for a basin of water, and, holding the same under the table, right against the candlestick, he will use certain words of enchantment, and, in short, you shall hear the sixpence fall into the basin. This done, let one take off the candlestick, and the juggler take the handkerchief by a tassel and shake it; but the money is gone, which seems as strange a feat as any whatsoever, but, being known, the miracle is turned to a jest; for it is nothing else but to sew a sixpence into a corner of the handkerchief, finely covered with a piece of linen a little bigger than your sixpence, which corner you must convey, instead of the sixpence given you, into the middle of your handkerchief, leaving the other in your hand or lap, which afterwards you seem to pull through the table, letting it fall into the basin.

To know if a Coin be a Head or Woman, and the Party to stand in another Room.

This is done by confederacy: he that lays it down, says, “What is it?” and that is a sign it is a head; or he says, “What is it now?” and that is a sign it is a woman: cross and pile in silver is done the same way. By confederacy, divers strange things are done: thus, you may throw a piece of money into a pond, and bid a boy go to such a secret place where you have hid it, and he will bring it, and make them believe it is the same that you threw into the pond, and no other.

So let a confederate take a shilling and put it under a candlestick on a table a good distance from you; then you must say, “Gentlemen, you see this shilling;” then take your hand and knock it under the table, and convey it into your pocket; then say, “The shilling is gone; but look under such a candlestick and you will find it.”

To command Seven Halfpence through the Table.

To do this, you must employ a tinman to make holes, with room enough for a die to go in and out, and let him clap a good halfpenny upon them all, and so make them fast, that nobody can tell them from true ones. Then get a cap to cover your halfpence, also a cap and a die for the company to fling, to amuse them; when you are thus provided, the manner of performing is thus:—Desire any body in the company to lend you seven halfpence, telling them that they will soon be returned; then say, “Gentlemen, this is made just fit for your money;” then clapping your cap on, desire somebody in the company to fling that die, and, in so doing, take off the cap, and convey your false money into it, so that the company may not see you put it in; then with your cap cover the die, while with your right hand you take up the true money, and put it into the left under the table, saying, “Vado, begone; I command the die to be gone, and the money to come in the place;” so take up the cap, and the die is gone, and the money is come. Having covered the money again with the cap, taking the true money with your right hand, and knocking under the table, also making a jingling, as though the money was coming through the table, fling them on the table, and say, “There is the money,” and, with your right hand, take off the cap, saying, “And there is the die;” so convey the false money into your lap, and there is the cap likewise.

To command a Sixpence out of a Box.

You must get a box turned with two lids (one must be a false one), and there put the counter, so that it may rattle; and you must have a small peg or button to your box, to hinder the counter from jingling, and at the bottom of the box you must have half a notch made, just fit for a sixpence to come out. So, to perform this feat, you must desire any body to lend you a sixpence, and to mark it with whatever mark he may please; then let him put it into the box himself; afterwards put the cover on, and, by shaking the box, the sixpence will come into your hand, when you may dispose of it as you please.