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The oldest trick known would appear to be the "Cups and Balls", and while there is no mention of the Dedi or, for that matter, and other early Egyptian magician performing this trick in the pre-christian era, it would seem that in many parts of the world, as far apart as Greece and India, forms of this particular piece of deception were being used to entertain and mystify the spectators. In its early form it was usual to have three cups metal or otherwise and for a small ball to vanish and then travel to and from the cups into the performer's hands. Today, the trick is a magical classic and is part of the contemporary conjurer's repertoire.
There were other kinds of magic practiced by the priests in the Greek temples. Here, more sophiticated trickery was used, involving ingenious apparatus that could cause a voice to issue from a statue, fire to blaze on command from an earthen vase, and doors that opened at the command of the priest. Such mysteries were, according to the priests, the magic of the gods.
Time passes before magic makes its mark as entertainment on the European scene. Only a minority of its population were educated, and to the ignorant, and something most possible fostered by the priests of those days, there was a fear of witchcraft, and with that fear, the thought that those who could cut and restore a handkerchief could well be in league with the Devil.
Nevertheless there were many favoured, in both England and the Western part of Europe, and the magician as an entertainer employing minimal apparatus and a fair proportion of skill, toured the counties in question, performing to crowds surrounding him.
History tells us of Brandon, at the court of Henry the Eighth, and of how he, this master entertainer, one day while in the Royal courtyard, drew the attention of the favoured company to a pigeon perched on top of a wall. Taking a piece of chalk he drew on the lower part outlining the illustration of a bird. Then taking a dagger in his hand, he struck the centre of the outline, and the pigeon suddenly dropped from the wall to be found dead at the courtiers feet. Such a feat so seemingly magic, and yet performed by simple means make the King well think that one who could do such to a bird quite equally could do the same to a King, and Brandon was warned to keep such a feat out of his repertoire.
In the sixteenth century there was to be an event that was to help purvey to so many believers what was assumed to be withcraft.
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