Further you can gather—not from the hand but from the face, stature, carriage, and mannerisms of the boy or girl or the man or woman whose hand you are supposed to be reading—a good deal about his or her temper and temperament and also about her or his foibles and peculiarities. In fact the palmistry of the palmists is simply a study in deduction, very much a la Sherlock Holmes, of the person as a whole, and it is by no means limited to an investigation of the hand alone.
How to Read Palms.
—There are two things which you should learn before you begin to read palms and these are (1) the names of the different parts of the hand, and (2) the lines and mounts of the hand.
The names given and the corresponding parts of the human hand are shown at [A in Fig. 124]; these are the scientific names and you will add very greatly to your stock of knowledge to get them down by heart.
The names, of the lines and the mounts of the hand are given and shown at [B] and these are the terms that are used by palmists. You will observe that the eminences are called mounts and these are named after the planets of the solar system, for the ancients supposed that they were inter-related. To get by as a palmist it goes without saying that you must have these all down pat.
To find out what kind of health the subject is in, grip the hypothenar eminence, which is the side of the hand opposite the pollux, or thumb, between your thumb and fingers and squeeze it a little; if it is perfectly firm and the palm has a good healthy color you are quite sure that its owner is in good health, but if the flesh is soft and is not elastic and if the palm is pale and bloodless you will be quite right in saying that the subject’s health is not good, nay worse, it is even bad, and you will not offend your subject by so saying.
The length of the life line is supposed to determine how long the subject who owns it will live but even if you find one broken off short never tell the person that he or she will live only a short time. Indeed to be a successful palmist tell every one whose hand you read that she or he will live to be anywhere from 80 to 108, and you’ll be on the safe side.
The line of the heart, according to palmistry, indicates the affections and passions of a person. Always tell a fellow that he is a great lover and that he is constant, but you can say to a girl that she is capricious, which means about the same thing as being fickle, and both the man and the maid will be highly pleased. The line of Saturn is the line of disposition and you must always make the subject just as sweet and angelic as possible unless you want her to break up the séance[136] then and there and hold a wake to prove you’re right.
[136] A sitting given by a medium or a palmist is called a séance (pronounced say´ance).
Apollo, as the line of fortune is called, is a good one to talk at length on; you can tell every subject that he or she has had bad luck, but that fortune will follow; that he or she will marry a pretty girl, or a handsome man as the case may be, live in New York if already living in the country and the other way about—for everybody wants to live anywhere except the place he is in—and don’t forget to say “you’ll live happily ever after.”