The medium has provided himself with two rings exactly alike; one of these the audience is free to examine, the other the medium is wearing on his right arm, under his coat.  When the two hands are clasped together, therefore, it is a simple thing for the medium, under cover of the enveloping cloth, to slip the duplicate ring down his sleeve, and on to his own hand, and that part of the “miracle” is accomplished!  It remains only to explain what becomes of the first ring.  The cloth thrown over the arms is very thick and stiff, as stated, and the inner side of this contains a double partition, or sort of bag, into which the medium slips the duplicate ring.  The cloth may now be shown on both sides, without disclosing the ring, and the medium makes away with it as soon as possible, in order to avoid detection.

DECEPTION EXPLAINED BY THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY

The object [of this passage] is to enable the reader to see, more easily, how it is that the watchful observer is deceived into believing that a thing is so, when in reality it is not, and vice versa; and also to give an idea of the various methods employed by the medium in order to accomplish his results.

I must first of all call the reader’s attention to one or two rules which every conjurer learns at the commencement of his study, and which he learns to apply so constantly that it becomes second nature to him.  The first is:  Never let the eyes rest on the hand that is performing the “sleight,” but always on the other hand, or on some object on the table or elsewhere, as this will have a tendency to draw the eyes of the audience to that point also.  The sitters or audience will always look at the point closely watched by the magician—­their eyes have a tendency to follow his, and wherever he looks, there will the onlooker look also.  Needless to say, the magician makes use of this fact, and many tricks and illusions are dependent upon it for their successful ac-complishment.  Whenever the magician or medium looks intently at one hand, therefore, the other hand should be watched, as it is a sure sign that that is the hand which is performing the trick.

Another fundamental rule that is observed by all sleight-of-hand performers is:  Never to let an audience know beforehand what is to be done; i. e., the nature of the trick that it is intended to perform.  If the spectator knew what was forthcoming, he would be on the lookout for movements of the performer at certain critical times—­just at the periods when close observation is least wanted—­ and would quite possibly detect the performer in the act of executing certain movements which would show how the trick was performed.  But not knowing what is coming, the spectator is unable to watch closely at the critical moment—­not knowing what that moment is—­and so is unable to detect the trick, his attention being diverted by the performer, just before this movement is made, to some other object or movement.