Natural Mag ick. ‘Boo^ i 6.

How letters may become vijible upon an Egg by the fire.

WriteontheEgg wich juice of Lemmons,or Onyons,or Fig-mitk: when you put thisto the fire, the Letters will appear yellow : and that must be done on a raw Egg: lorif you boyl it,the letters will be seen.

That letters may be seen on the Egg Jhell by dufi.

Make letters on the shell with vinegar, suet, fig-tree-milk, or of Tiihymal, or withgums: when you would have them seen, rub them with cole-dust, or burnt straw, orpaper, and they will seem black. There is a way

How to pttt a letter into an Egg.

Mike your letter that you send, narrow and long, scarce broader then your middle -finger: write your mindc in short characters, and with the edge of a knife,make a cuein the Egg, and break the inward skin, and put in your letter at one end by degrees:for it will easily take it in, were it ten hands breadth : then stop the cut, with limeand gum mingled,that it may not be seen,and with Ceruss and gum-Tragamh; for themit is impossible to discern it. But if you will have this done more neatly, put the eggein sharp vinegar three or four hours: and when you finde it loft,open the shell withthe edge of your knife, put in your roil of paper: then soak it in cold water, and theshell will grow as hard as it was.

Chap. V.

Hew you may write in dt vers places , and deceive one that can read.

I Have shewed you divers ways of writing invisible; now I come to those ways thatwill teach you to write letters on divers things, which though they be visible, andintercepted, yet the Reader - will be deceived by their secret device. First,

How to write on a jmali thretd.

Let us see how they did this in elder times: GeHus nott.jittic. relates,That when theLacedemonians writ to their Generals, that their letters being intercepted by the c-uemies might not be read,invented this kinde of writing; yet it is referred to Archi-medes to be the inventor of it. Two sticks must be made long and round,and polishedwith the Turners instrument; they must be equal for length, breadth and thickness.One of these was given to the General when he went forth to war, and the otherwas kept at home by the Senate: as oft therefore as need was , a page was rolled about the stick, as large as could contain the matter, that it might make a round vo-lume,and i he sides of itwere so welljoyned , that they were like a collar that ex-actly fitted the wood,and no chinks between: upon this collar,that thus was rolledabout the stick, they writ letters over, hwart, from top to bottom. The collar thuswriiten on, being long and narrow, was taken ess from the stick, arid lent to the Ge-neral ; for they thought, if it was intercepted by the enemy, when they saw bits ofletters,and syllables,and of words,so far divided,they would never discern the thing;and they were not deceived in this conjecture. For when they fell among theene-mies.the enemy did not imagine any thing was writ on the collar; but let them pass,as with a thing done at all adventures,and insignificant: but he to whom it was writ,applied this band,and rolled it about, as it was at first writ upon: and then the wordslay jo\n'd as they should be,and so he knew the message. The Greeks call this kirdof writing ,Plutarch faith , A letter thus writ, was brought to hysander byHellespont. But I invented to write lo with a Threed : make two small sticks alikegreat and rour.d: one we give to our friend that goes far from us, and hold the otherby us: let us make them stick so close together, that they may joyn,and seem to be asone, and the wood not be leen; fit the Threed as it should be, and write long-wayson the stick what you please; the broader the stkks are, the more lines will they re-ceive. If you first steep your Thiecd in water wherein Alcra is dissolved , the Inkwill not Ipread, but the letters will be the clearer : then take your Threed that is a-bout the stick, and wrap it on a heap; or t© keep it the more secret, sow it upon theedges of napkins or shirts, and fend it to your absent friend : for the curious watchshall discern nothing on the Threed,but some scattered points. Your friend windingthe Threed about the fame staff, and taking care to make the points meet at the topsand agree well, shall easily read them. 1 will (hew>