San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-17
THUMB LORE.
Queer Traditions Associated With
Mans shortest Digit.

ferred the wedding ring to the thumb
after the ceremony and that 1t is rep
sented so worn in portraits of the
period. He might have gone further
back. The heroine of Southerne's IA
Maids Last Prayer" declares of
lover: MARRY him / must; and wear
my wedding ring on my thumb, too,
am resolved;n from which IL may
reasonably be inferred that to do SO
was rather the whim of the few or the
habit Of the many.
Portraits of Elizabethan DANES
wearing their wedding rings upon
their thumbs are said to be extant.
Possibly the rings We're not wedding
rings, ringing the thumb being an
old feminine fashion.
1t was upon That member of the
hand Chaucer's Canace carried her
wonder. working hoop; and q mummy
case In the British Museum bears D
esentation OF an Egyptian lady.
the thumbs of whose crossed hands
are each encircled by a ring. In the
days of Queen Anne, &C ,Ording to the
Spectator, the feminine thumb-ring
was the badge of widowhOod; and
tho women tired of single blessedness
were wont to don 1t. and, as Jolly
widows" achieve conquests denied to
them as spinsters.
Mems thumb rings are no rarities
to collectors. Some OF the Roman
specimens must have been cumbrous
to wear, one in the MontfaucOn COL
lection, bearing the bust of Trajan's
cOnsort. PlOtina, measuring over 3
inches across. Medieval churchmen
OF high degree did not allow 1.-The
largest, first and shortest of the I'm.
gers" to 90 unadorned. A massive
gold ring was found upon the thumb
of the supposed skeleton of Hilary,
Bishop OF Chichester. who died In
1859, and the recum bent efigy of
Bishop of Oldham In Exeter Cathe-
dral lie remarkable for the pressed to.
gether thumbs being Enclosed by .
single ring. When the shrine OF
Thom.a- Beckett was robbed of its
treasures the famous archbishop's
thumb ring, given to him by the
King of France, graced with ruby
the size of hens egg, found It's way
to the thumb of the bluff King Hal,
and as the humor of the King is al
ways voted just the thing we may be
sure the royal hand was not the only
one SD decked at court. Mayors and
aldermen Initiated their betters.
"When was about thy years, Hal"
says the Fat Knight, II was not an
eagles talon In the waist; 1 could
have crept into an alderman's thumb
ring" and that the wearing of thumb
rings was pretty general In the seven
teenth century is proved by Brome's
remark that q good man in the city
carried nothing rich about him but
the govt and q thumb ring; and foran
example nearer our own day, it may
be noted that DR.. Thomas Chalmers
wore thumb ring once belonging to
his great great. great-grandfather.
Would be hypnotIzers g ould avoid
trying conclusions with persons pos
sessing longer jointed thumbs than
their own, for, If there is any truth In
pslmistry, the strength of ones will
depends upon the formation of ones
thumb; the will power of its owner
being great or little according to the
length, or want of length, of it's upper
Joint. How the thumbs of Roman
noliday-makers were formed matter
ed nothing to the defeated gladiator,
whose fate hung on their being bent
forwards or back wards; method of
decreeing life or death TO which. per-
haps, we owe man at another's
mercy being said to be under his
thumb. The Irish hero, Fingal, had
the felicity to be under his own
thumb, that member serving him as
danger signal, aching in peculiar
way whenever trouble impended,
when he had only to put it in his
mouth tobecome immediately instruct
ed how to overcome the difficulty ut
the hour. So by the prickiDg of her
thumbs, telling her "somethin g
wicked this way comes" did the
weird sister know of Macbeth's APP
proach before her ears caught his
football.
When q new member was initiated
| into the Westphalian Vehmgerichte,
and swore to keep the secrets of the
| society from wife and child, father
| and mother, sister and brother, from
| fire and sword, from the things
| warmed by the sun or nourished by
| the rain, he did so with the thumb
and two fingers of his right hand upon
the cross hilt of q sword. An oath so
taken was held irrevocable, and not
to be annulled by even the Pope him.
self. In olden times it was the pres
sure of the thumb upon the wax of
documents seal that made the deed
| valid and binding instrument, and IN
verbal contracts the thumb ratlheo
the bargain. Cloths and lberians
completed an agreement by licking
and Joining their thumbs, as Scotch
men once did, and Moors still do; ano
, rustic lovers once betrothed them
selves by licking their respective
master fingers and then pressing