Count on finger-nail spots:—
Friends,
Foes,
Money,
Beaux.
Begin with the first nail spotted, and the noun falling to the last nail thus marked gives the sign.
Deerfield, Mass.

Count on finger-nail spots:—
Friends,
Foes,
Money,
Beaux.
Begin with the first nail spotted, and the noun falling to the last nail thus marked gives the sign.
Source: Current Superstitions (1896), entry 118.
Fanny D. Bergen, editor.
Modern normalized navigation; the historical attribution above remains unchanged.