Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/129

 Rh instead of a ring, the hair is held between the first finger of each hand, joined vertically, and the name of the person beloved is pronounced. If the coin strikes three times against the rim of the tumbler, marriage is to ensue. If more frequently there will be a lengthy courtship and nothing more; if less frequently the affair will be broken off, and if there is no striking at all it will never come on. I have heard of this as far south as Sussex.

One of my correspondents writes thus respecting the practice of different arts of divination: “Six-and-thirty years ago divination certainly used to be practised in the North of England by servants in two or three ways, which have come under my notice. A nurse more than once told my fortune by palmistry. Nor was this mere amusement; she thought it would come true; and, however arbitrary the science might be, she had a uniform way of explaining similar lines in different hands. Thus if I remember rightly the line round the thumb had to do with money. If deep and well defined, riches were denoted; if slight and delicate, a moderate estate. If cut by other lines, heavy losses were indicated; if it was broken before it ran into the transverse line of the palm, ruin was shadowed forth. Of course there was a marriage line somewhere telling whether the lady was dark or fair, and another which prophesied the extent of her dower. The nurse used to speak of all this as if she much more than half-believed in her own predictions.” The Universal Fortune Teller, still an authority in the North of England, is however fuller and more definite on this point. After dilating on the importance of the matter, the amount of knowledge to be gained, and its absolute certainty and truth, we read as follows:—

“There are five principal lines in the hand, viz.

“The Line of Life,

“The Line of Death,

“The Table Line,

“The Girdle of Venus,

“The Line of Fortune,

besides the Line of Saturn, the Liver Line, and some others which only serve to explain the principal Lines.