How to tell what card any man thinketh on, and how to convey the same into a kernel of a nut or cherry stone, and the same again into one’s pocket; and how to make him draw the same, or any card you please, and all under one device.
Take a nut, or a 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 in a piece of fine paper, and roll it up hard, then put it into the nut or cherry stone, and stop the hole up with wax, and rub the same over with a little dust, and it will not be perceived; then let some stander-by draw a card, saying, ‘It is no matter what card you draw;’ and if your hands so serve you to use the card well, you shall proffer him, and he shall receive the same card that you have rolled up in the nut; then take another nut and fill it up with ink, and then stop the hole up with wax, and then give that nut which is filled with ink, to somebody to crack, and when he finds the ink come out of his mouth, it will cause great laughter. By this feat on the cards, great wonders might be done.
How to let twenty gentlemen draw twenty cards, and to make one card every man’s card.
Take a pack of cards, let any gentleman draw a card, and let him put it in the pack again, but be sure that you know where to find it again at pleasure; then shuffle the cards as before taught, and then let another gentleman draw a card, but be sure that you let him draw no other but the same card as the other did draw, and so do till 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 card, and shuffle them till you have brought both the cards together; then shewing the last card to the company, the other will shew the trick: By this means many other feats may be done.