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This trick, in which mental selections are determined through a system based on the redistribution of the cards, was described in Richard Hawkins's Mathematicall Recreations, 1633, p. 86. Variations that involve dealing the cards out into formations on the table for three, four and five spectators are described as “Quickly Found,” “In Rows,” and “Something Similar” respectively in R.P's Ein Spiel Karten, 1853, p. 64-66 of the Pieper translation.