You shall see a juggler take a tester and throw it into a pot, or lay it in the midst of a table, and with enchanting words cause the same to leap out of the pot, or run towards him, or from him along the table, which will seem miraculous until you know how it is done; which is thus, take a long black hair of a woman’s head fastened to the rim of a tester, by the means of a little hole driven through the same with a Spanish needle, in like sort you may use a knife, or any small thing, but if you would have it go from you, you must have a confederate, by which means all juggling is graced and amended; this feat is the stranger if it be done by night, and a candle placed between the spectators and the juggler; for by that means their eyes are hindered from discerning the conceit.
To make a groat or a tester to sink through a table, and to vanish out of a handkerchief strangely.
A juggler also will sometimes borrow a tester and mark it before you, and seem to put the same into the midst of a handkerchief, and wind it so as you may the better see and feel it; then will he take the handkerchief and bid you feel whether the tester be there or not, and he will also require you to put the same under a candlestick, or some such like thing; then he will send for a bason of water, and holding the same under the table right against the candlestick, he will use certain words of enchantment, and in short you will hear the tester fall into a bason; this done, let one take off the candlestick, and the juggler take the handkerchief by a tossel and shake it, but the money is gone, which seemeth as strange a feat as any whatsoever, but being known, the miracle is turned to a bauble, for it is nothing else but to sew a tester into a corner of a handkerchief, finely covered with a piece of linen a little bigger than your tester, which corner you must convey instead of the tester delivered to 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 bason.
A notable trick to transform a counter to a groat.
Take a groat, or some lesser piece of money, and grind it very thin at one side, and take two counters and grind them, the one at one side; glew the smooth side of the groat to the smooth side of the counter, joining them so close together as may be, especially at the edges, which may be so filled as they shall seem to be but one piece, to wit, one side a counter and the other side a groat, then take a little green wax for that is softest, and therefore best, and lay it so upon the smooth side of the counter as if it do not much discolour the groat, and so will that counter, with the groat, cleave together as though they were glued, and being filled even with the groat and the other counter, it will seem so perfect, like an entire counter, that though a stranger handle it he cannot betray it; then, having a little touched your fore-finger and the thumb of your right-hand with soft wax, take therewith this counterfeit counter, and lay it openly upon the palm of your left-hand, in such sort as if you were to lay down the counter, wringing the same hard, so as you may leave the glewed counter, with the groat, apparently in the palm of your left-hand, and the smooth side of the waxed counter will stick fast upon your thumb, by reason of the wax wherewith it is smeared, and so you may hide it at your pleasure always; that you lay the waxed side downward, and the glewed side upward, then close your hand, and in, or after the closing thereof, turn the piece, and so instead of a counter, which they suppose to be in your hand, you shall seem to have a groat, to the astonishment of the beholders, if it be well handled. The juggler must not have any of his tricks wanting.
An elegant feat to make a two-penny piece be plain in the palm of your hand, and be passed from thence where you list.
Put a little red wax, not too much, upon the nail of your longest finger, then let a stranger put a two-penny piece into the palm of your hand, and shut your fist suddenly, and convey the two penny piece upon the wax, which with use you may so accomplish as no man shall perceive it; then, and in the mean time, use words of course, and suddenly open your hand, hold the tips of your fingers rather lower than higher than the palm of your hand, and the beholders will wonder where it is gone; then shut your hand suddenly again, and lay a wager whether it be their or not, and you may either leave it there, or take it away at pleasure; this, if it be well handled, hath more admiration than any other feat of the hand. Note. This may be best done by putting the wax upon the two-penny piece, but then you must put it into your hand yourself.
To convey a tester out of one’s hand that holds it fast.
Stick a little wax upon your thumb, and take a stander-by, by the fingers, shewing him the tester, and telling him you will put the same into his hand, then wring it down hard with your waxed thumb, and using many words, look him in the face, and as soon as you perceive him to look in your face, or on your hand, suddenly take away your thumb and close his hand, and it will seem to him that the tester remaineth; even as if you wring a tester upon one’s forehead, it will seem to strike when it is taken away, especially if it be wet; then cause him to hold his hand still, and with speed put into another man’s hand, or into your own, two testers instead of one, and use words of course, whereby you shall make the beholders believe, when they open their hands, that, by enchantment, you have brought both together.