Another Way, not having seen the Cards.
If you can see no card, or be suspected to have seen that which you mean to show, then let a bystander shuffle, and afterwards take the cards into your own hands, and, having shown them, and not seen the bottom card, shuffle again, and keep the same cards as before you are taught; and either make shift then to see it when their suspicion is past, which may be done by letting some cards fall, or else lay down all the cards in heaps, remembering where you laid the bottom card; then see how many cards lie in some one heap, and lay the flap where your bottom card is upon that heap, and all the other heaps upon the same; and so, if there were five cards in the heap whereon you laid your card, then the same must be the sixth card, which now you must throw out, or look upon with suspicion, and tell them the card they saw.
To tell, without Confederacy, what Card one thinks of.
Lay three cards at a distance, and bid a bystander be true, and not waver, but think on one of the three, and by his eye you shall assuredly perceive which he thinks on; and you shall do the like if you cast down a whole pack of cards with the faces upwards, whereof there will be few, or none plainly perceived, and they also court cards; but as you cast them down suddenly, so must you take them up presently, marking both his eyes and the card whereon he looks.
To make a Card jump out of the Pack, and run on the Table.
Take a pack of cards, and let any one draw a card that he likes best, and afterwards take and put it into the pack, but so as you know where to find it at pleasure. Then take a piece of wax, and put it under the thumb-nail of your right hand, and thus fasten a hair to your thumb, and the other end of the hair to the card. Now spread the pack of cards open upon the table, and, making use of any technical words or charms, seem to make it jump on the table.
To tell a Card, and to convey the Same into a Nut, or Cherry-Stone.
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. Put it into the nut or cherry-stone, and stop the hole up with a little wax, and rub the same over with a little dust, and it will not be perceived; then let some bystander draw a card, saying, “It is no matter what card you draw,” and, if your hands so serve you to use the cards well, you shall proffer him, and he shall receive, the same card that you have rolled the name of up in the nut. Now take another nut and fill it up with ink, and stop the hole up with wax, and then give that nut which is filled with ink to some boy to crack, and, when he finds the ink come out of his mouth, it will cause great laughter. Many other feats of this kind may be done, so as to keep the company in good humour.
To let Twenty Gentlemen draw Twenty Cards, and to make one Card every Man’s Card.
Take a pack of cards and let any gentleman draw one; then let him put it into the pack again, but be sure where to find it again at pleasure; then shuffle the cards again, and let another gentleman draw a card; but be sure that you let him draw no other than the same card as the other drew, and so do for ten or twelve, or as many cards as you think fit; when you have so done, let another gentleman draw another card, but not the same, and put that card into the pack where you have kept the other one, and shuffle them till you have brought both the cards together; then showing the last card to the company, the other will be considered a more wonderful achievement.