2 4 MAGIC WORDS • Hokus-pokery -- John Tyler Bonner, First Signals (2000) • Hokus, Pokeus, Dominocus -- Edward B. Grothus, "Nuclear-Free News" (2005) • Hokus Pokus, Abra Kadabra "'Now I am going to show you the most magnificent skill of my entire life as a magician. I will raise the covers on the buildings before you by saying, Hokus Pokus, Abra Kadabra.' Then the covers turned into white eagles and flew away." -- Ilyas Halil, House of Cards (2000) • Hokus pokus alla gazam "The performer rolls the egg back and forth across the selected card. While doing this he utters the magic words, 'Hokus pokus alla gazam.' Then he states that the egg will name the card selected." -- John Scarne, Scarne on Card Tricks (1950) • Hokus Pokus Dominokus -- Hal Reid, Directions Magazine (1998) • Hokus Pokus Holderbusch This is a spell of disenchantment which Gretel hears the witch pronounce in the opera Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (189 ) • Hokus pokus jiminy smokus -- Bessie Whitmore Stillman, Training Children to Study (1928) • Hokus-pokus, popalorum, Stickstun, stickstun, cockalorum jig "A walking stick served him as a wand, and this he waved three times slowly and majestically, while he repeated in solemn tones this singular legend -- 'Hokus-pokus, popalorum, Stickstun, stickstun, cockalorum jig.' Thereupon the curtain went back, and lo! Sunday appeared sitting upon a throne of state, robed in a long crimson mantle, which made him look like an emperor." -- Bracebridge Hemyng, Jack Harkaway and His Son's Escape from the Brigands of Greece (1908) • Hokuspokus filiokus -- Jens Vigen (200 ) This is the Norwegian equivalent of hocus pocus. -- Charles E. Funk, Horsefeathers: And Other Curious Words (1958) In Literature: • "There was no attempt to hide deceit behind a curtain of impressive hokuspokus." -- Abraham Kuyper, Women of the Old Testament (1964) • "The worst fear of all: fear of death with no priest around to perform his little 'hokus pokus and holy oil' skit over him on his death bed." -- Robert H. Muller, From Radical Left to Extreme Right (1976) • "[A]n 'artistic hokus-pokus,' as unreal as the character himself, but which on that very account helps the illusion and makes the hole plausible." -- Robert Wooster Stallman, The Houses that James Built (1961)