Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/129

 but if it be short, and reach not the joint, he will have a shrew, and she will " wear the breeches."

Broad nails show the person to be bashful, fearful, but of gentle nature.

When there is a certain white mark at the extremity of them, it shows that the person has more honesty than subtlety, and that his worldly substance will be impaired through negligence. White nails, and long, denote much sickness and infirmity, especially fevers; and indication of the strength and deceit by women.

If upon the white anything appears at the extremity that is pale, it denotes short life by sudden death, and the person given to melancholy. When there appears a certain mixed redness of divers colors at the beginning of the nails, it shows the person to be very choleric and very quarrelsome.

When the extremity is black, it is a sign of husbandry. Narrow nails denote the person to be inclined to mischief, and to do injury to his neighbors. Long nails show the person to be good-natured, but distrusted, and loves reconciliation rather than differences. Oblique nails signify deceit and want of courage. Little round nails denote obstinate anger and hatred. If they be crooked at the extremity, they show pride and fierceness. Round nails show a choleric person, yet soon reconciled, honest, a lover of secret sciences. Fleshy nails denote the person to be mild in temper but lazy. Pale and black nails show the person to be very deceitful to his neighbor and subject to many diseases. Red and marked nails signify a choleric and martial nature, given to cruelty; and so many little marks as there are, they speak so many evil desires. A word on newness. Every little while the painful details of some " shocking domestic tragedy" are given to the public in the columns of the daily press. On investigation, it uniformly turns out that the " tragedy " was merely the culmination or explosion of a long train of " domestic combustibles," which one party or the other, and sometimes both, had been assiduously laying for months.