This feat is performed by means of confederacy.—Having privately
apprised your confederate that when he hears you strike one blow, it
signifies the letter A; when you strike two, it means B; and so on for
the rest of the alphabet, you state to the company, that if any one
will walk into the adjoining room, and have the door locked upon him,
perhaps the animal may appear to him which another person may name.
In order to deter every one except your confederate from accepting the
offer, you announce at the same time, that the person who volunteers to
be shut up in the room must be possessed of considerable courage, or he
had better not undertake it. Having thus gained your end, you give your
confederate a lamp, which burns with a very dismal light; telling him,
in the hearing of the company, to place it on the middle of the floor,
and not to feel alarmed at what he may happen to see. You then usher
him into the room, and lock the door.
You next take a piece of black paper, and a bit of chalk, and giving
them to one of the party, you tell him to write the name of any animal
he wishes to appear to the person shut up in the room. This being done,
you receive back the paper, and after showing it round to the company,
you fold it up, burn it in the candle, or lamp, and throw the ashes
into a mortar; casting in at the same time a powder, which you state to
be possessed of valuable properties.
Having taken care to read what was written, you proceed to pound the
ashes in the mortar thus: Suppose the word written to be CAT, you
begin by stirring the pestle round the mortar several times, and then
strike three distinct blows, loud enough for the confederate to hear,
and by which he knows that the first letter of the word is C. You next
make some irregular evolutions of the pestle round the mortar, that
it may not appear to the company that you give nothing but blows, and
you then strike one blow to denote A. Work the pestle about again, and
then strike twenty blows, which he will know to mean T; finishing your
manœuvre by working the pestle about the mortar, the object being to
make the blows as little remarkable as possible. You then call aloud
to your confederate, and ask him what he sees. At first he is to make
no reply. At length, after being interrogated several times, he asks if
it be a CAT.
That no mistake may be made, each party should repeat to himself the
letters of the alphabet in the order of the blows.