Chapter M: U T U S

1 2 3 4 5
D E D I T
6 7 8 9 10
N O M E N
11 12 13 14 15
C O C I S
16 17 18 19 20

(These words convey no meaning.)--You will observe, that they contain ten letters repeated, or two of each sort. You therefore ask each person which row or rows the cards he looked at are in; if he say the first, you know they must be the second and fourth, there being two letters of a sort (two U's) in that row; if he say the second and fourth, they must be the ninth and nineteenth, (two I's,) and so of the rest. This amusement, which is very simple, and requires very little practice, will be found to excite, in those who are unacquainted with the key, the greatest astonishment.

The readiest way is to have a fac-simile of the key drawn on a card, to which you refer.

_To tell how many Cards a Person takes out of a Pack, and to specify each Card._

To perform this, you must so dispose a PIQUET pack of cards, that you can easily remember the order in which they are placed. Suppose, for instance, they are placed according to the words in the following line,

_Seven Aces, Eight Kings, Nine Queens, and Ten Knaves;_

and that every card be of a different suite, following each other in this order: spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. Then the eight first cards will be the seven of spades, ace of clubs, eight of hearts, king of diamonds, nine of spades, queen of clubs, ten of hearts, and knave of diamonds, and so of the rest.

You show that the cards are placed promiscuously, and you offer them with their backs upward to any one, that he may draw what quantity he pleases; you then dexterously look at the card that precedes and that which follows those he has taken. When he has carefully counted the cards, which is not to be done in your presence, (and, in order to give you time for recollection, you tell him to do it twice over, that he may be certain,) you then take them from him, mix them with the pack, shuffle, and tell him to shuffle.

During all this time you recollect, by the foregoing line, all the cards he took out; and as you lay them down, one by one, you name each card.

Unless a person has a most excellent memory, he had better not attempt the performance of the above amusement, as the least forgetfulness will spoil the whole, and make the operator appear ridiculous.

_A Hundred different Names being written on the Cards, to tell the particular Name any Person thought of._

Write on ten cards a hundred different names, observing that the last name on each card begins with one of the letters in the word INDROMACUS, which letters, in the order they stand, answer the numbers 1 to 10, thus: