Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1890 — TOLD BY THE NAILS. [ARTICLE]

TOLD BY THE NAILS.

Various Things AVliich You Atay Determine by Their Color or Shape. Fortune-telling by means of the finger nails, onychomancy, as it was called, was not uncommon in ancient times, The practice was to rilUTbe nails with oil and soot or wax and to hold up the nails thus prepared against the sun, and upon the transparent horny substance were, supposed to appear figures or characters, which gave the answer required. In more recent times people have been found predicting by means of the nails of the hand and telling the disposition, of persons with certain descriptions of the hails. However absurd it may appear, we shall give examples of'this superstition: A person with broad nails is of gentle nature, timid and bashful. Those whose nails grow into the. flesh at the “points or sides are given to luxury! A white mark oh the nail bespeaks misfortune. Persons with very pale nails are subject to much infirmity of -the-ftes!? - tiiicl persecution by neighbors and friends. People with narrow nails are ambitous and quarrelsome. Lovers of knowledge and liberal sentiment have round nails. Indolent persons have generally fleshy nails. Small nails indicate littleness of mind; obstinancy and conceit. . Melancholy persons are distinguished by their pale or lead-colored nails; and choleric, martial men, delighting in war, have red and spotted nails.