- In the days of King Arthur, they lived in Camelot, A source who entertained the royal court with miraculous feet south, magic high.

Above the castle walls, the ancient necromancy meets with members of the magic round table.

Come with us now to the secret room of Merlin Magic.

- My, that, that, that looks like a, like a, like a cannon ball, not a billiard ball.

I've never had that happen before on a, on a magical, on a magical explosion.

If I had two more, I could juggle.

If, if that one will come down and that other one will come outta space, we'll have just enough.

Oh, these, these are very heavy.

I don't know if I can juggle.

These are not, oh, oh, I'm getting so old and so, so clumsy.

Hope I can juggle better than I can hold onto them.

Well, let's try it.

All right.

Try two.

First two work.

All right, here we go.

This, this, this was a rubber ball that was a little trick I played on you.

I really didn't hurt myself.

And these are the two hard ones.

I'll give them to my friend George, the genie.

What's the time for now?

Write, make the mighty sword ize.

Shall we do it together?

Good.

Let's say the magic words right now.

'cause we have a lot to do today.

Ready?

Fiddly die fiddly.

D magic sword Rise.

For me, the magic word today is T-R-A-V-E-L. Travel.

Travel.

In King Arthur's day in the middle ages.

Medieval times is rather difficult.

Of course, most of the people travel by walking.

Others travel by horseback if they're fortunate and have the money to own a horse as the knights do.

And others travel by boat.

But it's very difficult to travel by boat ship because they don't know that the world is round.

And the 10th century maps make the world look rectangular like this.

And right in the center of the map, they have Jerusalem and all around is the sea or the sea of darkness.

But by the end of the 14th century, man began to improve his knowledge of the earth and the world about him.

And he learned that it looked something like this.

Now over here, of course, we have Europe, and right there is England.

This is Italy, and this is Africa.

All medieval man thought that this was a sea of darkness, this body of water to the west of them.

And they, well, they didn't know.

They weren't sure that North America was here and that South America was here, but they were certain that this water was a very frightening body of water.

And as I said before, they called it the sea of darkness.

And they thought there were monsters to be found in the sea of darkness.

That's right.

Huge monsters that would, that would eat them alive if they dare sail a ship into what we know now as the Atlantic Ocean then called the sea of darkness.

Well, finally, one brave and daring fellow named Ferdin Magellan got the king of Spain to give him five ships.

And the lead ship was the Victoria.

And he wanted to find a passage around the world to China.

Previously, they'd been going to China this way down as Vasco de Gamma did down the coast of Africa.

But it took him a year.

And he finally reached, he finally reached South America, and then he found, a year later, he found a strait or a passage right through the tip of South America, and later was called the Straits of Magellan.

Well, by this time, they had a violent storm.

Four of the ships were lost, and only his ship remained.

He went through the Strait of Magellan.

There were no sea monsters.

This was nonsense.

He discarded all thoughts of that, and he sailed further west and northwestward on and on around, around the world on a long Northwest passage.

And lo and behold, about a year and three months later, he came around.

He passed China and came around the tip, the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope in the two masted sailing ship, the Victoria.

And from there he went back to Spain, the very first man to sail around the world.

Gone.

Now were the thoughts of sea monsters.

This was no longer the mysterious sea of darkness.

He didn't believe in that anymore.

He knew that this was an ocean west of Europe and Africa later called the Atlantic Ocean.

And this over here was shortly named by the Mapmakers, the Pacific, because it was calm.

It's a Spanish name for calm ocean.

They used the navigators, used the compass.

They had improved sails, better vessels, more knowledge of the world.

And they began to learn what the world around them was all about.

Travel improved at the end of the 14th century.

As I said, man used to always draw a map of the world in this shape.

It was square.

And he thought that he went to the edge of the earth.

He would fall right off into the terrible sea of darkness.

He learned that wasn't true after Magellan's wonderful voyage around the world.

And what happened?

What happened to the square?

What happened?

The square world of the rectangular world became round, perfectly round and gone were his old fears and his old superstitions.

He also sailed by the stars.

But we'll save that for another meeting.

I wanna explain to you just how the stars work and how you can read the stars, find Polaris and navigate in the evening.

Well, we all know the world is round and it's a very interesting world.

But before man did learn, the world was round.

He got many rare and exotic goods from the east, from China, and from cafe.

I'm gonna tell you about a mysterious trick that King Arthur got from China.

But just now, I think I'd better talk to Betty, the bookworm.

She knows all about travel.

I'll see if she's here.

I thought Betty, the bookworm is here, but she's not here.

What?

What?

What?

Hello, Betty.

Well, hi Merlin.

How are you?

Fine.

Say Betty.

What?

What do you know about medieval travel?

- Well, everything I know everything that there is to know about travel.

- Yes.

What - Please, Merlin.

I don't talk while I'm interrupting.

- Alright, I'll be quiet.

Go ahead.

- Well, - You tell us, - As I was saying, most of the people in the Middle Ages do very little about the world in which they live.

- That's true.

- Marlon, do you hear that?

- I I hear you.

Yes.

I'm listening.

- Well, they knew that, that the world about them was, was, was funny.

And they were actually afraid to leave home.

They thought that they would be eaten by sea monsters.

- That's - They voyaged on the ocean.

Oh, but isn't that silly?

- That's ridiculous.

- What, say Merlin.

Are you listening?

Well, then say something.

Well, come on.

I'm listening.

Well, let's think of, well, what's the matter?

Has the cat got your - Tongue?

But, but - Well now pay attention.

- No, I'm listening.

I'm - Listening.

As I was saying, it wasn't until the Crusades that the people of Europe actually gained knowledge of distant lands.

In fact, just after the Crusades, the compass was perfected and And sail were improved.

- Yes.

- And maps were much more accurate.

And man learned that the earth is round.

Did you know that Ferida Magellan proved that the world is round when he sailed around the world from spade in 1519?

- Yes.

- Well, - Yes.

- What do you think of that information, - Lin?

Well, it's very wonderful information.

I hate to say this, Betty, but we just talked about that.

- Well, well, why didn't you say so, Lin?

- Well, I tried to, but you're hard to stop.

- What?

What are you trying to say, Lin?

Are you trying to say that I'm a blabber mouth?

- No, I don't mean exactly that.

- Well, the very idea, Merlin, why?

Why you old Billy though, but, well, Jay was Merlin.

- I'm sorry.

- Listen.

No, - Listen.

Betty, - Why Merlin?

I've never been so assaulted in my life.

- I'm sorry, Betty.

Don't.

- Oh, Merlin, - She's, she's so sensitive.

Betty, the bookworm and I, she's full of knowledge.

She reads a lot.

And of course, all of us should read a lot because it helps us learn.

This is one of the tricks that came from the Orient.

A bottle, a glass, and two tubes.

You notice the tube just fits over the bottle and it just fits over the glass.

Likewise, this tube just fits over the bottle.

But the strange thing is, even though the bottle is here and the glass is here, if I snap my fingers like that twice, the bottle will leave there and it will go over to this side.

Believe it or not.

Let's see.

Oh, you know when you see this trick, sometimes you see double.

Some people even watch the trick and they see two bottles.

And then if I snap my fingers three times, we find that the bottle truly did go over there and the glass went back there.

What's that?

You want it to reverse again?

All right.

But first I should explain about the little magic wand I have here.

I have a little magic wand that you can obtain by writing to Merlin the Magician.

It's a very special magic wand.

And if you write to Merlin and tell me the good deed you have done, I'll send you a membership card to the magic round table and also a little wand.

Well, as I was saying, we have a glass here and we have a bottle here.

Now I'm going to make them change places.

Fiddly dye, fiddly D, magic bottle change for me.

Now the bottle's over there and the glass is there back again.

And you see now the bottle is over here.

I beg your pardon?

You what?

You'd like me to do it one more time.

Snap my finger here, then snap my finger here.

The bottle leaves here.

And it goes where?

Here?

Well, it hasn't gone yet there.

That's a harder snap.

And it made it work.

You see the bottle is here and the glass is here.

But if I put this tube over here and I cross this tube over here, no matter how many times I snap my fingers, they'll never change places.

They stay just where they are.

No, the bottle will not change places.

And the tubes are still as empty as when we started to perform the trick.

You know, when the Chinese magician would finish his trick, he'd always do one thing.

He'd take the bottle and he'd take this very special glass, this magic glass, and he'd pour a little rice wine into the glass for the audience who witnessed the trick.

That's called a toast.

And then he'd wish them all the luck in the world.

So I'm going to do the same thing.

I'm going to toast you as a Chinese magician would do.

And wish you all the luck in the world.

Do you think I can pour some magic Chinese wine from here?

Well, let's try it.

There may be some in there that's clear.

Rice wine.

I love it.

It's very delicious.

Here's to your health and happiness.

See you soon.

- Betty.

The Bookworm was portrayed by Helen Siglin.

Merlin was produced in the studio of Ohio University Television, Athens, Ohio.