I have heard it asserted that doctors know
this, and never touch a sore but with the mid-finger.
There were other practices and notions appertaining to the spittle and
spitting, some of which continue to this day. To spit for luck upon the
first coin earned or gained by trading, before putting it into the
pocket or purse, is a common practice. To spit in your hand before
grasping the hand of a person with whom you are dealing, and whose offer
you accept, is held to clinch the bargain, and make it binding on both
sides. This is a very old custom. Captain Burt, in his letters, says
that when in a bargain between two Highlanders, each of them wets the
ball of his thumb with his mouth, and then they press their wet thumb
balls together, it is esteemed a very binding bargain. Children in their
games, which are often imitations of the practices of men, make use of
the spittle. When playing at games of chance, such as _odds or evens_,
_something or nothing_, etc., before the player ventures his guess he
consults an augury, of a sort, by spitting on the back of his hand, and
striking the spittle with his mid-finger, watching the direction in
which the superfluous spittle flies, from him or to him, to right or
left, and therefrom, by a rule of his own, he determines what shall be
his guess.
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