was Archdeacon from 1401-8. It appears from Hasted that he went to Rome in 1406, and was there declared by the Pope to be Archbishop of York by letters of provision, which were shortly after revoked; and in 1408 he was appointed Bishop of Salisbury; and as France modern was not adopted until the year 1405, we may fix the date of the font between that year and 1408,- possibly between 1405 and 1406. I must observe, however, that though Mr. Greenstreet's supposition is most probably correct, still in the various manuscript copies of the Visitation of Kent (Camden by Philipot, in 1619-20) in the British Museum, and further, in the original records at the Heralds' College, I find exactly similar arms to those on the font attributed to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, or their predecessors, the Priory of Christchurch. It is true that there does not appear any trace elsewhere of such arms having been used by the Dean and Chapter, who now use the original old seal of the Priory, "az., on a plain crose arg., the letters in old English characters"; but still there, in the original records and the various manuscript copies, these arms are attributed to the Dean and Chapter. I must observe also that the roses on the font appear to me to be Tudor roses, which would postpone the date to 1485; and I am told by competent authority that the crescent in the coat is not a mark of difference, but an integral part of the coat, as appears from its size and position. It is curious also that another Archdeacon, Kingsley, in 1619 bore "sa., a cross engr. erm., in the first quarter a mullet or", being very similar arms. I cannot explain how the arms of the Dean and Chapter should appear on this font, while the patron's arms might be expected; but it seems to me that the subject is worth attention, with a view of clearing the matter up; and I shall be very pleased to assist any one in doing so, and should be obliged by any reference which would enable us to find out the owner of the merchant's mark on the second shield, and the true date of the font. FINGER-NAIL LORE. BY H. SYER CUMING, ESQ., V.P., F.S.A. SCOT. (Read 5 March 1884.) THE subject upon which we are now about to treat, viz., finger-nails, may seem at first sight to belong exclusively to the physiologist; but the human nail, small as it is, is so loaded with ancient traditions and superstitions, mythic tales, odd fancies, quaint fashions, and strange conceits, that the archæologist has a right to divide its consideration with the anatomist, leaving to him the phenomena of its development and structure, claiming only such portions of the question as relate to man's social history, creeds, and customs. The traditions regarding the human nail carry us back to ages of primæval bliss, to the glorious realms of Paradise, to a period of undefiled existence, to the very birth and birth-place of the human race. A Rabbinic story relates how our first parents were, in their state of innocence, clothed in a transparent garment, a shining covering, which at their rebellion against Jehovah's law shrank into the ungual defences still found upon the toes and fingers of their descendants, the tokens of the former and the fallen condition of mankind. Long has existed and wide-spread is the belief that the form of our ungual defences proclaims the character and capacity, temperament and social rank, of individuals; like as the phrenologist, physiognomist, and palmister, declare that they are indicated by the cranium, face, and hand. Though this belief has many friends it has yet some foes. Among others is Gaule, who in his Magastromancers Posed & Puzzel'd (1652), p. 187, tells us that it is thought "long nailes, and crooked, signe one brutish, ravenous, unchaste; very short nailes, pale and sharp, show him false, subtile, beguiling; and so round nailes, libidinous; but nailes broad, plain, thin, white, and reddish, are the tokens of a very good wit." Remnants of this ancient creed are still traceable in the popular notion that broad nails are indicative of plebeian origin, coarse, vulgar mind, and unfeeling heart; that long or "filbertnails" bespeak patrician ancestry, proud spirit, fervid imagination, and refined taste; whilst sharp hooks are characteristic of all that is sordid, selfish, base, and brutal. Whenever a fiend or demi-human monster is depicted, either by pen or pencil, he is sure to have long nails. Shakspere, in The Tempest (ii, 2), attributes them to Caliban, and makes him say to Trinculo, "I, with my long nails, will dig thee pig-nuts"; and the presumed length of his Satanic Majesty's ungues has gained him the sobriquet of "Old Scratch", and makes the Clown in Twelfth Night (iv, 2) sing: "In his rage and his wrath Cries ah! ha! to the Devil. Like a mad lad, Pare thy nails, Dad; Adieu, goodman Devil!"1 Fiendish as long nails are considered in Europe, certain races of Africa and Asia have ever regarded them as ensigns of rank, and elegant and enviable appendages to the ten digits; employing every method they can think of to develop them as much as possible; resorting to warm water, baths of various kinds, and poultices, to bring them up to the standard of beauty. It is stated that the natives of Upper Nubia encourage their growth by holding the hands over small fires of cedar-wood. Our good old countryman, Sir John Maundevile, speaks of an Eastern people whose sovereign "hathe every day 50 fair Damyseles, alle Maydenes, that serven him everemore at his Mete. Thei kutten his Mete, and putten it in his Mouthe; for he touchette no thing, ne handlethe nought, but holde the evere more his handes before him upon the Table; for he hathe so long Nayles that he may take no thing, ne handle no thing. For the Noblesse of that Contree is to have longe Nayles, & to make them growen alle weys to ben as longe as men may. And there ben manye in that Contree that han hire Nayles so longe that The fossil shells of the Gryphaa incurva are popularly known as "the Devil's toe-nails", and are hence regarded with becoming awe by the vulgar. thei enveyronne alle the hand; and that is a great Noblesse." The people here described can be none other than the Chinese, who have ever been renowned for the elongation of their ungual members, which they still continue to cultivate with avidity, thinking them "a great Noblesse." Sir John Davis, in his account of the Chinese (i, p. 252), says that "it is fashionable in both men and women to allow the nails of the left hand to grow to an inordinate length, until they assume an appearance very like the claws of the Bradypus as represented in Sir Charles Bell's work on the Hand. An English gentleman in China reasonably prohibited one of his servants from indulging in this piece of foppery, on the ground that fingers provided with such appendages could not possibly perform any work. The brittleness of the nail rendering it liable to break, they have been known sometimes to protect it, when very long by means of thin slips of bamboo"; and it may be added that there were formerly in the Museum of the United Service Institution two very long Chinese nail-cases, of silver, which looked for all the world like the claws of some savage beast. The passion for long nails is by no means universal; many nations are, and ever have been, content to keep their ungues within moderate bounds by cutting and clipping; to which operations let us now turn, for mighty events hang upon nail-paring. 3 The wealthy Romans prided themselves in having their nails kept in peculiar order, the knife employed for the purpose being termed cultellus, as we learn from Horace2 and Valerius Maximus. It was part of the duty of the tonsor, or barber, to clip and pare the nails into proper shape; and when a man performed this act for himself, it was regarded as a mark of low station or excessive meanness.* We gather from Pliny that at Rome it was 1 Among other rules enjoined to the femme de chambre of the middle ages, one was never to let their nails be so long that dirt could be seen. See Fosbroke's Encyclopædia of Antiquities, ed. 1843, p. 602. 2 Ep. i, 7, 51. 3 iii, 2, 15. The Anglo-Saxons had a peculiar knife for paring nails, called nægel-seax. Du Cange (s. v. "Unguicularium") speaks of the onuchisterion, a knife, or instrument allied to it, for nail-cutting. 4 Plaut., Aulul., ii, 4, 33; Tibullus, Elig., i, 9, 11. 5 His. Nat., xxviii, 5. religiously believed by many that it was ominous, in a pecuniary point of view, for a person to pare his nails without speaking, on the nundina, or market-days, or to begin doing so at the forefinger. Sir Thomas Browne says, "The set and statary times. for paring nails and cutting of hair is thought by many a point of consideration; which is, perhaps, but the continuation of an ancient superstition. To the Romans it was piacular to pare their nails upon the nundina (observed every ninth day), and was also feared by others on certain days of the week; according to that of Ausonius, 'Ungues Mercurio; Barbam Jove; Cypride Crines.'" In Tomkis' comedy of Albumazar" we are told : "He puls you not a haire, nor paires a naile, Nor stirs a foote, without due figuring The horoscope." And we glean from other sources that certain days have ever been considered as propitious and unpropitious for nail-cutting. Thus we find it stated in Thomas Lodge's Wit's Miserie and the World's Madnesse; discovering the Devils Incarnat of this Age, when speaking of Curiositie, "Nor will he paire his nailes on White Munday to be fortunate in his love." "That you may never pare your nailes upon a Friday" is a foolish fancy condemned by Barton Holiday in his Τεχνογαμια. An old rhyme says : "Of a Friday's pare No good will come near." And yet Addison, in his Present State of the Jews (p. 129), affirms that they superstitiously pare their nails on a Friday. If Friday be unlucky, Sunday is still more so : "Better that child had ne'er been born, Who cuts its nails on a Sunday morn," But that none may plead ignorance regarding the due time and exact consequence of nail-cutting, let the following quaint rhythmical rules be committed to memory, and strictly adhered to by all who place faith in them; 1884 1 Vulgar Errors, ed. 1630, p. 226. 2 4to., London, 1634. Signat. B. 36, 25 15 |