Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-09-15
ancient TR|CKST
Queer Conjuring Feats Of the
Seventeenth Century.
SOME QUAINT OLD RECIPES.

SOME QUAINT OLD RECIPES.
Little Experiments in Which Boiling
Heads Off Living Animals Was an
ineioent-How They Killed a 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 were only
strange mixture of chemist, conjurer
and charlatan, and as these gentlemen
were in the habit Of using their sup
posed occult powers to their own adj
vantage they were naturally unpopu-
lar. The feats Of jugglery performed
by these craftsmen were intended for
the mystification and not the anhuse-
ment of the public, and for centuries
conjuring had to it only black side.
The amateur conjurer of today is not
always popular Individual, save with
children and 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 a 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
| wizard.
In the middle of the. seventeenth
century, In the earliest years Of the
restoration, q number Of tricks were
| published in one Of those facetious
| books which seem to have occupied
the press to great extent at this time,
but which owing to their popularity
have for the most part persisted. The
| chief recommendation of the greater
| nuMber Of these tricks is that no ap-
| paratus beyond the utensils of every
day life is necessary; also 1t 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.
''To set a 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 "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
standers-by "they shall seem to have
horses or asses heads"--a costly ex-
pertinent and fearsome If successful.
4 But, besides this, one can make peo-
| pie seem headlesse," and this without
bloodshed and by the following simple
recipe: Break arsenick very fine and
| boyle it with sulphur in a cover'd pot
and kindle it with new candle, and
the standers-by will seem to be head
lesse.'' Doubtless a strong magma
ton is necessary for success.
Some Of the tricks are such as would
nowadays cause the performer to be
disliked, to put it mildly. For instance,
"haye a nut filled with ink and give
this unto another and bid him crack 1t
and see what lie can End in that"
which being done twill cause much
laughter"
ITO keep Tapster from frothing his
pots' must have been an amusement
to the ways of the period, and for this
provide ia readinesse the skin of a red
Herring. and when the Tapster is alb
sent do but rub a little on the inside
Of his pots, and he will not be able to
froth them, do what he can in a
Z good while after"
"To counterfeit a diamond with a
: white saphir' is most useful accom-
! plishment, but the fraud is likely in
81 these days to be discovered and is
more a chemical experiment than q
trick
Several tricks are recommended
which have animals as their subject
!, and are for the most part brutal tc
: our modern ideas. sPerhaps the least
Objectionable is ito seem to kill 3
Horse and cure him again. y which
may be thus accomplished:
/ ''Take the seed Of henbane and give
! it the Horse in his Provender, and i
b win cast him into such a deep sleeI
that he will seem dead. II you vii
recover him again, rub his Nostril,
with Vinegar, and he will seem to b.
I revived" The seem to be revived
: sounds rataer ominous, and it is to b
! noted that the correct quantity of hen
: bane Is not mentioned, SO that 1t nigh
:, be best to make this experiment Of
some one elsse's horse.
1 ITO make a shoai Of Goslings draw
Timber logge' sounds aaateresting