MAGIC WORDS In Literature: • "Kabir stepped forward holding what appeared to be a rope, an old bicycle chain which Ibrahim Pasha had encased in a woven cotton tubing that was knotted at each end. He wiggled the device for all to see as his father, with English words, proudly announced the 'Old Indian Rope Trick!' Kabir set the rope on the ground and waved his hands over it as he said the magic words, 'Gilli-gilli-gilli!' And then he lifted it again, turning it and carefully holding it so that the links of the concealed bicycle chain stretched straight out, parallel to the ground. The rope, to the delight of the small crowd, seemed to defy the most basic laws of nature, as if to prove that the intractable force that pulls all things to earth could, if one only knew the secret, be overcome. Anything is possible for the conjurer." -- Lee Siegel, Net of Magic (1991) • Stephanie Jones, As Long as You Love Me (2000) Go (see also don't stop) Mystique: "That magic word 'Go'" is a gleeful yell, a "spirit-stirring sound" that encapsulates "joy at the prospect of getting under way." Common Magician's Applications: Vanishing. For example: "Five cards are selected by yourself or a member of the company, and thrown faces up on the table. You then announce that you are about to cause one of the cards to disappear, and ask a person to name the particular card. This is done and you collect the five cards in the left hand, squaring all together, and giving them a 'fillip' with the fingers of the right hand, say 'Go! Did you see the card disappear?' 'No!' 'Really -- well I am not surprised but I will show you that it has done so.' Deal out the cards on the table, and sure enough there are only four. Pick up the cards again and treat them in the same way as before. Deal out again and the lost card re-appears -- there are now five on the table."7 Variations and Incantations: • Go away "Now you tell your two volunteers that on the count of three they are to pull the rope and the knot will disappear. One, two, three they pull the cord but when you slide the toilet roll away the cord is in a knot. Of course, you forgot to say the magic words 'Go Away.' You pass the cord through . . . and say the magic words, and this time there is no knot." -- School Performance Tours, "Teachers' Resource Pack for Ventriloquist and Magician" (2005) 6 Josiah Gregg, "On the Trail," A Great Plains Reader (200 ) 7 Ellis Stanyon, Magic (1902)