It was formerly the fashion, after bringing out a number of eggs as above described, to finish by producing the hen which is supposed to have laid them. This was done by an adroit exchange of the bag just used for another containing a hen, hung in readiness behind a chair, or some other convenient cover. This latter bag having no double side, or other preparation, might safely be abandoned to the inspection of the most curious spectator. Where it is not intended to produce the bird, it will still be well to have the second bag, so as to be able to make an exchange, and to hand the bag for inspection.
It is a great improvement to the egg-bag to have the lower portion, say the last three inches of its depth, made of network, so that the spectators can at once see each egg as it falls to the bottom of the bag. It is hardly necessary to observe that in this case the inner lining of the double side must terminate where the network commences.
To Produce Eggs from a Person’s Mouth.—While upon the subject of eggs, we may notice this, though it has always appeared to us a rather disagreeable trick. It is rarely exhibited as a separate feat, but generally as a prelude to some other illusion, for the performance of which three or four eggs are necessary.
The performer, requiring eggs, sends his assistant to fetch a plate. On his return, he places him, holding the plate with both hands in front of him, facing the company. The performer standing beside him, and gently patting him on the head, an egg is seen to appear between his lips. This is taken from him, and placed on the plate. The performer, passing behind him, now stands on his other side, and again patting his head, another egg is produced in like manner. This is repeated until the requisite number of eggs is procured, the assistant, as each fresh one is produced, simulating increasing difficulty, as though the eggs were forced up from the stomach by a powerful muscular effort.
This effect is produced as follows: We will suppose that five eggs are to be produced. One is placed beforehand in the mouth of the assistant, and four more are placed in the pochettes, or tucked under the waistband of the performer, two on each side. Having placed his assistant in position, the performer secretly takes one of these latter into his right hand, and palms it. Patting the assistant on the head with his left hand, he waits until the egg appears between the teeth, and immediately on its appearance, raises his right hand as if to receive it, thus bringing up the palmed egg opposite the mouth, while the egg that is already in the mouth slips back, under cover of the hand, out of sight. The palmed egg is laid on the plate, and the performer, in the act of passing behind his assistant, palms a second egg in his left hand. The same pantomime is again gone through, save that in this case the right hand pats the head, and the left hand is held to the mouth to receive the egg. After four eggs have been produced in this manner, the fifth, which has been all along in the mouth, is produced apparently in like manner, but the performer takes care that in this instance it shall be seen beyond a doubt that the egg really does come from the mouth; which being manifestly the case in this instance, the audience are pretty sure to jump to the conclusion that all were produced in an equally bonâ fide manner.
Fig. 159. Fig. 160.
The Pillars of Solomon, and the Magic Bradawl.—There is a very old-fashioned apparatus, sometimes called the Pillars of Solomon, for apparently uniting a piece of cut string. It consists of two slips of wood, each about four inches in length by five-eighths of an inch square, laid side by side. At about an inch from one end of each, a transverse hole is bored, and through this, passing through both slips, a string is passed, and may be drawn backwards and forwards from side to side. (See [Fig. 159].) The apparatus having been shown in this condition, the performer passes a knife between the two slips, thus apparently dividing the string; but the string is notwithstanding still drawn backward and forwards through the holes, as sound as ever.
The secret lies in the fact that the string does not, in reality, go straight through the two slips of wood from side to side. A glance at [Fig. 160] will enlighten the reader as to its real course. Instead of passing straight through from a to d, as it appears to do when the two pillars are laid side by side (which is the condition in which they are first exhibited to the spectators), it passes down the length of the first pillar from a to b, out at b, and into the second pillar at c, whence it passes upwards, and emerges at d. The passing of the knife between the two points a and d does not therefore affect the string in the least.
