Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

First Method. (With both hands).--Hold the pack in the left hand, lengthways, with the face downwards, as if about to deal at any game. In this position the thumb will naturally be on the left side of the pack, and the four fingers on the other. Insert the top joint of the little finger immediately above those cards which are to be brought to the top of the pack (and which are now undermost), and let the remaining three fingers close naturally on the remaining cards, which are now uppermost. (See Fig. 1.) In this position you will find that the uppermost part of the pack is held between the little finger, which is underneath, and the remaining fingers, which are upon it. Now advance the right hand, and cover the pack with it. Grasp the lower portion of the pack lengthways between the second finger at the upper and the thumb at the lower end, the left thumb lying, slightly bent, across the pack. Press the inner edge of the lower packet into the fork of the left thumb, so that the two packets will be as shown in Fig. 2. Next draw away the upper packet, by slightly extending the fingers of the left hand, at the same time lifting up the outer edge of the lower packet, till the edges of the two packets just clear each other (see Fig. 3), when by the mere act of closing the left hand they will be brought together as at first, save that they will have changed places. Do this at first very slowly, aiming only at neatness and noiselessness of execution. At the outset the task will be found somewhat difficult, but gradually the hands will be found to acquire a sort of sympathetic action; the different movements which we have above described will melt, as it were, into one, and the two packets will change places with such lightness and rapidity that they will seem to actually pass through each other. A slight momentary depression and elevation of the hands (apparently a mere careless gesture) in the act of making the pass will completely cover the transposition of the cards, which in the hands of an adept is invisible, even to the most watchful spectator.