Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The cups and balls is a classic performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. The effect known as acetabula et calculi was performed by Roman conjurers as far back as two thousand years ago. One popularly circulated painting of two men holding two inverted cups over two round objects has been taken by some as evidence that the effect dates back to Ancient Egypt, though experts now doubt that that is what the picture shows.