CHIROMANCY, krri5-man-sI, the prac tice of attempting to foretell the ftittrte of a person by inspecting the lines of his hand, in the markings of which chiromancy prtifesses to see a line of life and a line of fortune, In the gen eral acceptation of the term, chirochancy, among students• of the so-called art of palmistry, is restricted to the sense of foretelling' the future by means of an examination of the palm of the hand, while chirosophy is applied to the inter pretive science of the hand. It will be' thus readily seen that the' two terms have a ten dency to overlap one As la science cluromancy or palmistry deals with the "seven mounts" of the hand, their lines and the inter lacings of the latter. The names given to these mounts, Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo, Mercury. Venus, Mars and the Moon at once connect the practice of chiromancy with the art of divination as carried on by means of a study of the stars. The mount of Jupiter is situated at the base of the first finger; that of Saturn. the middle finger; that of Apollo, the ring finger; that of Mercury, the little finger; that of the Moon, the wrist; that of Venus, the thumb; while that of Mars is beneath that of Mercury. The system lays down four great lines: life, head, heart and fortune, the first three of which are termed "the trinity of hu man existence," that is to say, sensation, intel ligence and action. Length of life, possibility of disease, ill health and other misfortunes are determined by the line of life which, following the mount of Venus, meets the line of the head; intellectual quality by the line of the head crossing the palm obliquely from to Mars; estimation of character by the line of the heart crossing the hand horizontally from Jupiter to Mercury. While chiromancy as studied in the Middle Ages was, in some re spects, almost as complicated as astrology, yet it was governed by the one general principle that strong, long lines indicated strength of character and were generally favorable, while short, obscure or ill-defined lines bore the opposite import. So it was with the mounts. All clearly-defined mounts denoted a certain quality in the individual, while the dimness or total absence of the mount indicated weakness or absence of the quality. In the mount indicated the qualities Connected in mythology with the character whose name it bore. Thus Jupiter denoted joviality, love,
honor; Saturn, wisdom, prudence, success; Apollo, noble aspirations and love of the beautiful; Mars (the god of war), courage and resolution; Mercury (the culture god), love of science, industry, trade, commerce and the ac tivities of life; the Moon (the goddess of dreams), a dreamy disposition and strong moral character; Venus (the goddess of love) amor ous temperament and love for physical beauty. All these mounts were modified in an almost infinite variety of ways, by intersection of lines, shape of fingers formed by these intersections and their relation to one another, to the lines and to the mount;, as well as to the shape and formation of the palm, the fingers, the nails and other physical attributes.
Chiromancy is a very ancient practice and seems to have been at one time in pretty general use among most of the peoples of Europe, of India and of Egapt. It very probably had its origin in the ceremonies by the medicine men, diviners and priests of very primitive times, to determine good and had omens. The Assyrians, Hebrews, Chaldwans, Greeks and Romans paid particular attention to the study of chimmancy. From a purely priestly institution it degraded until it became a tool in the hands of unscrupu lous fortune tellers who were often as ignorant and credulous as their dupes. But before it arrived at this latter stage, it had reached a position where it was looked upon as being as exact a science and as worthy of careful study as any of the sciences of the age. Men of the highest rank, position, intelligence and educa tion gave their time to its •itudy. Already, in the early Middle. Ages, it had begun to claim the•;atteittiott of the little later, the att. was being practised by a professional class, who took the. place of the ejected'paaan priests, and exploited! the rich and But ,who practised palmistry ..were: mot! of this class; there many who •tus doubtedly believed in the art, which; was taught in. schools and colleges* Hewaver, in an age of extreme ignorance, the temptation to a willing public became _gradually .greater; and chiromancy degenerated; into palmistry and the latter into °fortune telliqe. • • •