s to
me and ask how they could have been done. Some of these baffle all
explanation. They are so marvellous, that I am convinced that they
have never been done and could never be performed.

Such tricks as described to me are usually the fruit of a vivid
imagination, pure and simple. As an instance of this, I will relate an
incident that happened some time ago in Calcutta. I gave a performance
in a public place in which I did a billiard ball trick. In the trick,
the greatest number of billiard balls that I have at any one time in
my hands is two. Throughout the whole of the trick I use no more than
one red, two white, and two smaller white balls. Five in all. After
the performance, I was having a well earned drink, when a complete
stranger to me asked if I had seen "that chap who did the tricks." I
could truthfully answer "no" and did so. "He was an absolute marvel,"
said the stranger "there he was on the stage in evening dress with
both arms bared (I never bare my arms) and he produced the whole set
of pool balls, every single colour of them." This was said to me
within ten minutes of my having performed the trick, and the five
balls that I used had been exaggerated into sixteen or seventeen. I
forget how many balls are used at the game of Pool.

The French Police truthfully say that no two untrained persons can
describe accurately in detail a scene witnessed an hour previously. I
am sure that all our Indian judges can verify this statement. It can
be easily proved by any one of my readers trying with his friends. It
is this inability to accurately describe what has been seen that
assists the conjuror so much in deceiving his audience. It is this
inability which unfortunately results in rumours being spread of
wonderful performances being given by magicians in distant lands,
notably the Rope trick, with which I will deal later. Such rumours
and stories are started by persons who from bravado will swear that
they have seen this, that, and the other, in order generally to be the
centre of their astounded listeners.

A trick that is most frequently described is that known as the Basket
trick, which is in my opinion the chef d'oeuvre of the Indian
Jadoo-wallah. It is a wonderful bluff usually wonderfully shewn.

A perfectly good basket is placed on the ground. It is shewn to be
quite empty and devoid of any trap, false bottoms or other mechanism.
After a well conducted altercation with his assistant, a small boy,
the