card in
each parcel belonging to each person. You then ask each of them in
which parcel his card is, and by the answer you immediately know which
card it is; for the first person's will always be the first, the
second person's the second, and the third person's the third in that
parcel where each says his card is.
This amusement may be performed with a single person, by letting him
fix on three, four, or more cards. In this case you must show him as
many parcels as he is to choose cards, and every parcel must consist
of that number, out of which he is to fix on one; and you then proceed
as before, he telling you the parcel that contains each of his cards.
_To name the Rank of a Card that a Person has drawn from a Piquet
Pack._
The rank of a card means whether it be an ace, king, queen, &c. You
therefore first fix a certain number to each card; thus you call the
king four, the queen three, the knave two, the ace one, and the others
according to the number of their pips.
You then shuffle the cards, and let a person draw any one of them;
then turning up the remaining cards, you add the number of the first
to that of the second, the second to the third, and so on, till it
amounts to ten, which you then reject, and begin again; or if it be
more, reject the ten, and carry the remainder to the next card, and so
on to the last; and to the last amount add four, and subtract that sum
from ten, if it be less, or from twenty, if it be more than ten, and
the remainder will be the number of the card that was drawn; as for
example, if the remainder be two, the card drawn was a knave; if
three, a queen, and so on.
_To tell the Amount of the Numbers of any two Cards drawn from a
common Pack._
Each court card in this amusement counts for ten, and the other cards
according to the number of their pips. Let the person who draws the
cards add as many more cards to each of those he has drawn as will
make each of their numbers twenty-five. Then take the remaining cards
in your hand, and, seeming to search for some card among them, tell
them over to yourself, and their number will be the amount of the two
cards drawn.
For example.--Suppose the person has drawn a ten and a seven, then he
must add fifteen cards to the first, to make the number twenty-five,
and eighteen to the last, for the same reason; now fifteen and
eighteen make thirty-three, and the two cards themselves make
thirty-five, which deducted from fifty-two, le
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