8.  The eighth is characteristic of imprecation.  It consists in stretching the palm of the hand toward the object as in a caress, but with this difference, that the fingers are spread apart, thus offering a repulsive aspect.

9.  The ninth is characteristic of refusal, repulsion.  It consists in carrying the hand obliquely as in negation, observing the spreading of the fingers which characterizes this species.

Affirmation—­The Hand.

To make the demonstration of the different affirmations of the hand more clear, we employ the cube which, as is well known, has six faces, eight angles, and twelve edges.

When the hand is placed upon a flat surface the affirmation is simple; when the hand is placed upon an angle the affirmation is triple or common to three faces or surfaces.  There are three directions in the cube:  Horizontal, vertical and transverse.  So, too, there are three directions possible for the hand in relation to the body: 

  1.  Abduction—­which removes,
  2.  Adduction—­which brings close, and
  3.  The normal direction.

There are three sorts of adduction, three sorts of abduction, and three sorts of normal direction.

There are three horizontal, three vertical and three transverse directions; hence nine terms applicable to the nine modes of presenting the hand in connection with the cube, which are: 

[Illustration: 

+---------------------------------------------+
/|                                            /|
/ |                                           / |
/  |                                          /  |
/   |                                         /   |
/    |          UPPER SURFACE.                /    |
/     |                                       /     |
/      |             To hold.                 /      |
/       |                                     /       |
+---------------------------------------------+        |
|        |                                    |  O     |
|  I     |                                    |  U     |
|  N     |                                    |  T     |
|  W     |                                    |  W     |
|  A     |                                    |  A     |
|  R     |          FRONT SURFACE.            |  R     |
|  D  T  |                           |        |  D     |
|     o  |          To retain.       |        |     T  |
|  L     |                                    |  L  o  |
|  A  w  |          Limit.         --         |  A     |
|  T  i  |                                    |  T  b  |
|  E  t  |          Obtain.          |        |  E  e  |
|  R  h  |                           |        |  R  l  |
|  A  d  |          BACK SURFACE.             |  A  o  |
|  L  r  |      |                             |  L  n  |
|     a  |      |   To maintain.              |     g  |
|  S  w  |      |                    |        |  S  .  |
|  U  .  |          Contain.         |        |  U     |