That those
in the Nail of the Thumb have significations of honour, those in the
fore-Finger, of riches, and so respectively in other Fingers (according
to Planetical relations, from whence they receive their names), as
_Tricassus_ hath taken up, and _Picciolus_ well rejecteth."
No. 148.--A very complete account of the signification of moles is quoted
from "The Greenwich Fortune Teller," in Brand's _Popular Antiquities_
(Bonn's ed.), iii. 254.
CHAPTERS IV. AND V.--Two of the most interesting and most accessible
lists of projects and Halloween observances are Gay's well-known
_Shepherds Week_ and Burns's _Halloween_.
No. 170.--It is an interesting psychological fact that projects are in
the great majority of cases tried by girls and young women rather than by
boys and young men.
No. 174.--Here, as in many other cases, it is assumed that young men and
women are accustomed to indulge in promiscuous kissing. The use of the
word gentleman sufficiently indicates the level of society from which
this project was obtained. Gentleman in this sense signifies any male
human being over sixteen. It is often used more specifically to mean
sweetheart, as "Mary and her gentleman were at the policemen's ball."
No. 184.--On Biblical divination see Brand's _Popular Antiquities_
(Bonn's ed.), iii. 337, 338.
No. 186.--This custom of divining the color of the hair of one's future
wife or husband, which is probably very old, yet survives in many places,
but with interesting modifications as to the bird which gives the signal
to try the divination.
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