DIVINATION AND PALMISTRY 373 



most ancient Greek writings as a well-known belief. 

 The gipsies probably brought it with them from India. 

 Those who practise palmistry pretend that by the in- 

 spection and proper interpretation of the various irregu- 

 larities and flexion-folds of the skin of the hand the 

 mental or moral dispositions and powers of an individual 

 can be discovered, and not only that, but that the 

 current of future events in the life of an individual are 

 indicated by them. To this it is customary to add 

 nowadays the pretence of a revelation by these same 

 markings of events in the past life of their owner. It is 

 only what we might have expected that primitive man, 

 seeking for signs and occult mysteries, should have found 

 in the varying folds of the hand — " the organ of organs " 

 — something to excite his tendency to attribute magical 

 importance to what he could not simply explain. The 

 folds of the skin on the palmar surface of the hand are, 

 as a matter of fact, so disposed that the thick loose skin 

 shall be capable of bending in grasping, whilst it is held 

 down to the skeleton of the hand by fibrous lines of 

 attachment, so as to prevent its slipping and the con- 

 sequent insecurity of grip. The swellings bounded by 

 the lines of folding and fixture are called " monticuli " 

 by the palmist, and are simply subcutaneous fat, which 

 acts as a padding, or cushioning, and projects between 

 the lines of fibrous attachment of the skin to the deeply 

 placed bones. They differ slightly in different individ- 

 uals, as do other structures. 



These same lines and monticuli are present in the 

 hands and feet of the chimpanzee and other man-like 

 apes, and were specially exhibited under my direction in 

 the upper gallery of the Natural History Museum. But 

 no palmist ever read the ape's hand, although, according 

 to the great and authoritative treatises on palmistry, it 



