5
the enchanted cock.
Bring a cock into a room with both your hands close to his wings, and hold them tight; put him on a table and point his beak down as straight as possible; then let any one draw a line, with a piece of chalk, directly from bis beak, and all the noise you can possibly make will not disturb him for some time, from the seeming lethargy which that position you have laid him in has effected.
to suspend a king by a burnt thread.
The thread having been previously soaked two or three times in common salt and water, tie it to a ring not larger than a wedding-ring. When you apply the flame of a candle to it, though the thread burn to ashes, it will yet sustain the ring.
a conceit to produce laughter.
Take a ball in each hand, and, stretching your hands as far apart as you can, bet with any one in the company that you shall make both balls come into either hand he pleases, without bringing your hands together; as it appears rather a difficult feat, your bet will be readily taken up. You then accomplish the feat and win the wager by simply laying the ball in the one hand on the mantel-piece or table, and, turning yourself half round, taking it up with the other.
the travelling egg.
Take a goose’s egg, and, after opening and cleansing it, put a bat into the shell; glue it fast on the top, and the bat will cause the egg to move about in a manner that will excite much astonishment.
the simple deception.
Stick a little wax upon your thumb, take a by-stander by the fingers, show him a sixpence, and tell him you will put the same into his hand; then ring it down hard with your waxed thumb, and, using many words, look him in the face: suddenly take away your thumb, and the coin will adhere to it; then close his hand, and it will seem to him that the sixpence remains; now tell him to open his hand, and if you perform the feat cleverly, to his great astonishment, he will find nothing in it.
to produce a colour which shall sppear and disappear by the influence of the atmosphere.
Put into a decanter some volatile spirit, in which copper filings have been dissolved, and it will produce a fine blue
