Page:Indian Palmistry.djvu/9

 PREFACE.

, the art of foretelling the events of life by the lineaments of the hand, derived its name from the Greek word cheiros, the palm, and manteia, to foretell, whence it has been vulgarly called Palmistry—as it is named in a recent Act of Parliament to forbid its practice for gain or reward. In Coleman's Mythology of the Hindoos, p. 202, it is written: "On the Buddha's foot is the mark called the 'chakravarti,' wheel or discus, which should have been on the palm of the hand, by which the sages at his birth divined that he would rise to considerable eminence." He says (p. 19): "Various data have been assigned to the period of Buddha's existence. The most correct seems to be about 550 B.C., whence, as the sages practised cheiromancy at Buddha's birth, its existence must have been much earlier known among the Indians." "In the year 1652," writes Zadkiel, "the celebrated astrologer, Geo. Wharton, Esq., published a translation of 'a matchless piece' as