Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1907-09-09

Queer coniuring Feats of the
Seventeenth Century.
soME QUAINT Old RECIPES.

I'><tS -s,s9S+ &Fflef1tS IN SsHscF7 Eoffng /
Heads Of Living Animals Was an
iroident-How They Killed Horse
and Cured Him Again.
Conjurers in ancient times were not |
very respectable members of society.
When successful they enjoyed the rep
utation OF having sold their souls to the
evil one, and when Of inferior ability |
they gained notoriety by being either |
drowned or burned The medieval
magicians as well as the Egyptian
magi and the Chaldean sages We're only
strange mixture of chemist, conjurer
and charlatan. and as these gentlemen
We're in the habit Of using their sup
posed occult powers to their own adj
vantage they We're naturally unpopu-
lar. The feats of jugglery performed
by these craftsmen were intended for
the mystiication and not the amuse-
ment of the public, and for centuries
conjur.ng had to it only black side.
The amateur conjurer of today is not
always a popular individual, save with
children anG the unsophisticated yokels.
To the general public he is merely
bore of greater or less magnitude,
whose performance is so obvious as to
deceive no one. 1t is hard to realize
| that this person is no mere mushroom
| growth of modern society, but in point
! of fact his role is one of respectable
antiquity, for he is to be found tread
| ing close upon the heels of the magi-
clans and in the days when witchcraft
was still rampant. This is significant
| of his reputation even in those early
times, for had any one taken his tricks
seriously he would doubtless have been
| run to earth and done to death as a
wizard.
In the middle of the seventeenth
century, in the earliest years of the
restoration, number Of tricks were
published in one of those facetious
books which seem to have occupied
the press to a great extent at this time,
but which owing to their popularity
have for the most part persisted. The
chief recommendation of the greater
nuhber of these tricks is that no ap-
paratus beyond the utensils of every
day life is necessary; also it is sug-
gested to the performer that he can
make some small profit out of his en-
tertainment by prevailing on his audi
ence to bet with him on the result of
the trick.
Ito set horses or an asses head
upon a mans head and shoulders
seems impossible out of the land of
Faery, but we are Informed that by
boiling the head cut off living
animal 1.-The flesh boyd may runne
into oyle,'' and then by mingling the
, hair beaten into powder with this
oil and amounting the heads of the
, ISLANDERS by they shall seem to have
horses or asses heads'-a costly ex
pertinent and fearsome If successful.
But, besides this, one can make PEG
, pie seem headlesse," and this without
. bloodshed and by the following simple
recipe: Break arsenick very fine an6
boyle it with sulphur in a cover'd pc
and kindle it with new candle. an(
the standers-by will seem to be head
Jesse" Doubtless a strong magma
I ton is necessary for success.
Some Of the tricks are such as would
) nowadays cause the performer to b
d disliked, to put it mildly. For instance
: .'have a nut filed with ink and Civ
this unto another and bid him crack
q and see what he can find in that,
which being done twill cause mucl
laughter"
ITO keep a Tapster from frothlng hi
9 pots'' must have been an amusemen
: to the wags of the period, and for thi
7, provide in readinesse the skin of a re
o Herring. and when the Tapster is al
Is sent do but rub a little on the insid
q of his pots, and he will not be able t
froth them, do what he can, in
good while after"
. "To counterfeit diamond with
white saphir'' is a most useful accom-
y plishment, but the fraud is likely
, these days to be discovered and
:. more a chemical experiment than
ie trick.
10 Several tricks are recommends
~ which have animals as their subje'
and are for the most part brutal
our modern ideas. Perhaps the lea
VI Objectionable is ''to seem to kill
Horse and cure him again." wEic
In may be thus accomplished
ne "Take the seed of henbane and gi'
it the Horse in his Proyender, and
ne will cast him into such a deep slee
- that he will seem dead. If you W
:, recover him again, rub his NOstri
~ with Vinegar, and he will seem to
IA revived The ''seem to be revived
ch sounds rather ominous, and it is to
NV noted that the correct quantity of he
r. bane is not mentioned, SO that it mig
be best to make this experiment {
he some one elses horse.
ms ITO make a shoal of Goslings dra
a Timber logge" sounds interestin
=, but unfortunately the directions a
III vague. "To make a sheal of Goslin
TO or a Gaggle of Geese to seem to dra
a a Timber logge is done by the vel