What's in a Hand, Including the Index Finger?

If you want a good pick-up line, try being a palm reader—even for a day. Just look at the hands of the object of your amorous interest. Casually ask her: “May I take a look at your hand?—it is fascinating!”

Of course, you are working on her natural self-conceit and need for praise. If you are bold, you would take her hand and go on to scrutinizing it—turning it this way and that way.

“Interesting,” you say.

“Are you an artist, by any chance—poet, writer—or may be some latent undiscovered talent?” you ask.

Now it is up to you to take it to greater heights. If you don’t fumble, you are sure to score—just as surely as the sun sets in the west.

I have seen many fingers in my days—plumb ones, fat thick ones, long ones, small anemic ones, wrinkled ones, male looking ones, crooked ones, course ones—you name it.

The fingers have the owners’ histories written all over them—life of hardships or relative comfort, or the nature of one’s labor. Beneath the fingers are meridian of nerve strands to various organs. No wonder you sweat in your palm in anticipation of a job interview or at the prospect of meeting that seemingly unattainable damsel. In a deal in which I lost a bundle I could feel the hand of my swindler shaking. If I knew then what I know now, I would have pulled out of the deal by virtue of that handshake.

The fingers are useful tools and, like all tools, they may be used for good or evil.

“I have it at my finger tips” seems to suggest connections to the brain. And so some acupressure adherents swear on the healing or soothing effects on touches at certain points of the hand and fingers.

Friendship and love often involves holding hands. And what a sight of beauty it is to see people walking hand-in-hand!

A handshake is a form of greeting or peace overture. Making a deal with a handshake is form of trust. Handshake is also made at the conclusion of a negotiation or as an indication of goodwill. A case in point—the recent handshakes between Oginga and Kibaki raised hopes for Kenyans and whoever else cared.

There are: Thumbs Up, High Fives, Fist Pump, V-Sign, etc—all positive use of fingers.


In disapproval we slap or hit with our hand. In an argument Black American women raise their palms in your face to indicate they had enough you. Americans will give you the middle finger in road rage. We Acoli point at a person with the index finger in warning the other person of dire consequences. And speaking of pointing the index finger at someone, was our Acoli MP gesture a warning or emphasizing a point?





The pointing of an index finger in a heated and emotional commotion outside of a hall at Columbia University where the President of Iran was speaking depicts anger.


Americans usually consider it rude to point the index finger at people as you speak to them—even in emphasis. Thus politicians, like Clinton (of Lewinsky’s infamy) have adopted the Kennedy style to emphasize points. It is now dubbed the Clinton Thumb. Basically, it is a kind of fist with the thumb overlayed on top.

The index finger has many other uses too. The other day I saw a young girl probe her nose with it to pry some caked body emission. For those who know, the index finger can aid one’s member in taking a partner into the stratospheres of ecstatic pleasure. Or in dry seasons some people can take the joys of the gods into their own hands!