mmersed in water for a
minute or so without crumbling or being damaged by the water. These
balls are put into the common sand box, so that they are only just
visible to the performer. He puts his hand into the box and extracts a
handful of common sand, together with a ball of powder. He thrusts his
hand into the bowl leaving the ball immersed, and notes its position.
He again takes a handful of common sand and with it another ball which
he places in the water. Similarly he places all the coloured balls
into the water, under the guise of adding plenty of common sand, to
make the trick more difficult and wonderful. He notes very carefully
the position of each coloured ball as he puts it into the water, as
when immersed they cannot be seen either by him or the audience, owing
to the dirty blue-ishness of the whole mixture.

The audience now select the colour of the powder to be extracted. The
performer remembers the position of the required ball and takes it
out.

If it is to be poured out wet, he opens his hand and drops it on to
the ground. If it is wanted "Dry," by squeezing the ball, its baked
shell is cracked and its contents pour out.

There is no difficulty in performing the trick. It is very effective
and one that is included in the programme of many European conjurors,
though their modus operandi is more efficient and needs less
preparation.

CHAPTER VI

A ROPE TRICK

The only rope trick I have ever seen performed by an Indian conjuror,
is that of "The cut string restored," as it is called in England.

The idea is to get one of the audience to cut a piece of string or
rope ostensibly in half and by magic to restore it, without the use of
knots.

[Illustration: PRELIMINARIES OF THE RESTORED ROPE.

The only rope trick that I have ever seen performed in India.]

The explanation of this trick is given in many books for beginners in
Magic. The author of "Modern Magic"--the best work to my mind on
Elementary conjuring--says of it "This trick is of such venerable
antiquity, that we should not have ventured to allude to it, were it
not that the mode of working, which we are about to describe,
though old in principle is new in detail and much superior in neatness
to the generally known methods."

After offering the rope for thorough examination Shah Mahommed took
the two ends and manipulated the rope in such a manner that when it
was held out to be cut it was in this wise:--

[Illustration]

Held