A white mark on the nail bespeaks
misfortune. Persons with very pale nails are subject to much
infirmity of the flesh, and persecution by neighbours and friends.
People with narrow nails are ambitious and quarrelsome. Lovers of
knowledge and liberal sentiment have round nails. Indolent people have
generally fleshy nails. Small nails indicate littleness of mind,
obstinacy, and conceit. Melancholy persons are distinguished by their
pale or lead-coloured nails; and choleric martial men, delighting in
war, have red and spotted nails.

Particular marks on the person were looked on as having reference to
one's destiny. A mole on the chin told that the person thus adorned
would be prosperous and esteemed. A mole on the right breast denoted
sudden accidents and reverse of fortune; one on the left breast was a
sign of success and of an amorous disposition. The mole on the right
breast foretold that the issue would be girls; that on the left
indicated that the children would be boys. A mole under the left
breast of a man was a sign of him having an unsettled mind, fond of
rambling, and light in his conduct. A similar mark under a lady's left
breast showed her to be sincere in love. A mole on the right knee gave
tokens of the person so marked being destined to trouble and
misfortunes. A mole on the left knee portended a good spouse, with
great riches, to the happy individual so marked. A mole on either foot
foreboded sudden illness, or unexpected misfortune, and one on any
part of the shoulders indicated imperceptible decline and gradual
decay in health and fortune. There were many other ways of divining
the fate and dispositions of man, such as by the hand, foot, hair,
mouth, ears, tongue, eyes, chin, walk, conversation, and complexion;
but as it would be unprofitable to treat all these separately, we pass
them without further notice in this chapter.

Mysterious knockings and unaccountable noises were indicative of the
death of a relative. Warnings of this description were common and
believed in. Educated people, as well as the ignorant, were victims of
this kind of superstition. In the beginning of the last century a
highly respectable gentleman in England was one night surprised by a
sudden knock at the street door, so loud that he thought an attempt
was being made to break it open. Springing from bed, he seized a brace
of pistols, and was hastening to the door, when a second knock, louder
than the first, was heard. A third