Little Nails. Little round nails discover a person to be obstinately angry, seldom pleased, inclining to hate every one, as conceiving himself superior to others, though without any reason.
Pale or Lead-colored Nails. A melancholy person, one who through choice leads a sedentary life, and would willingly give up all things for the sake of study, and to improve in the learned and metaphysical branches of philosophy.
Red and spotted Nails. Choleric and martial, delighting in cruelty and war; his chief pleasure being in plundering towns, where every ferocious particle in human nature is glutted to satiety.
When you find any black spots upon the nails, they always signify evil, as white ones are a token of good.
FORTUNE-TELLING BY TEA OR COFFEE GROUNDS.
To pour out the grounds of a tea or coffee cup.—Pour the grounds of coffee or tea into a white cup, shake them well about in it, so that their particles may cover the surface of the whole cup; then reverse it into the saucer, that all the superfluous parts may be drained, and the figures required for fortune-telling be formed.
The person who acts as the fortune-teller, must always bend his or her thoughts upon him or her who is to have their fortune told, and on their rank in life, and profession, in order to give plausibility to the predictions. It is not to be expected that upon taking up the cup, the figures will be accurately represented as they are in reality, but it will be quite sufficient if they bear some resemblance to any of the emblems; and the more fertile the fancy is of the person that inspects the cup, the more he or she will discover in it.
In other respects, every one who takes a pleasure in this amusement, must be a judge under what circumstances he or she is to make changes in point of time—speaking, just as it suits, in the present, the past, or the future; in the same manner, their ingenuity ought to direct them when to speak more or less pointedly with regard to sex.
The Roads, or separate lines, indicate ways; if they are covered with clouds, and, consequently, in the thick, they are said to be infallible marks, either of many great or future reverses. But if they appear in the clear and serene, are the surest token of some fortunate change near at hand; encompassed with many points or dots, they signify either a gain of money, or long life.