The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-09-27
ANCIENT TR|CKSTERS,
Queer Coniuring Feats of the
Seventeenth Century.
SOME QUAINT OLD RECIPES.

Little Experiments In Which Boiling
Heads Off Living Animals Was an
Incident-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
r,'il one, and when of inferior ability
they gained notoriety by being either
drowned or burned. The medieval
magicians as we'll as the Egyptian
magi and the Chaldean sages were only
strange mixture of chemist, conjurer
and charlatan. and as these gentlemen
We're i'll the habit Of using their sup
posed occult powers to their own ad-
vantage they We're naturally unpopu-
lar. The feats of jugglery performed
by these craftsmen were intended for
the mystification and not the amuse-
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 ami 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 Witchcratt
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. 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
nuzlDer 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.
''ro 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 a living
animal the flesh boyd may rune
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 fcarSOme If successful
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 cover'd pot
and kindIe it with u new candle. and
the standers-by will seem to be head
lessee" Doubtless a strong 1magina-
ton is necessary for success.
Some of the tricks are such as would
nowadays cause the performer to be
disllked to put it mildly. For instance,
have nut filled with ink and give
this unto another and bid him crack 1t
and see what he can find in that"
which being done will cause much
| laughter"
ITO keep Tapster from frothing his
! pots" must have been an amusement
| to the wags of the period, and for this
! 'provide In readinesse the skin of red
| Herring. and when the Tapster Is alb
sent do but rub little on the inside
of his pots, and he will not be able to
froth them, do what he can, in a
! good while after"
ITO counterfeit n diamond with a
white saphir" is Il most useful accom-
plishment, but the fraud is likely in
these days to be discovered and is
more a chemical experiment than Il
| trick.
Several tricks are recommended
! which have animals as their subject