Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

After having exhibited the trick in this form once or twice, you may vary your mode of operation. For this purpose take the dice (still retaining their relative position) horizontally between the thumb and second finger, in the manner depicted in Fig. 117, showing “three-one” on their upper face; the corresponding “three-one,” or rather “one-three,” being now covered by the forefinger. As the points on the opposite faces of a die invariably together amount to seven, it is obvious that the points on the under side will now be “four-six,” while the points next to the ball of the thumb will be “six-four.” You show, alternately raising and lowering the hand, that the points above are “three-one,” and those below “six-four.” Again going through the motion of rubbing the dice with the opposite forefinger, you slightly raise the thumb and depress the middle finger, which will bring the “six-four” uppermost, and the “three-one” or “one-three” undermost. This maybe repeated any number of times; or you may, by moving the thumb and finger accordingly, produce either “three-one” or “six-four” apparently both above and below the dice. The trick may, of course, be varied as regards the particular points, but the dice must, in any case, be so placed as to have similar points on two adjoining faces. TO NAME, WITHOUT SEEING THEM, THE POINTS OF A PAIR OF DICE.--This is a mere arithmetical recreation, but it is so good that we cannot forbear to notice it. You ask the person who threw the dice to choose which of them he likes, multiply its points by two, add five to the product, multiply the sum so obtained by five, and add the points of the remaining die. On his telling you the result, you mentally subtract twenty-five from it, when the remainder will be a number of two figures, each representing the points of one of the dice.