CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
THE MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY

COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITIONS

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The First Paring of a Child's Nails

There is a disinclination to cut the nails of an infant before it is one year of age. Alternately, the mother should bite the nails when necessary to keep the baby from scratching itself or gloves or mittens should be worn by the infant until its first birthday. To cut the nails before twelve months will cause the child to be a thief and nails pared on or after the first birthday should be cut over the Bible thereby guaranteeing that the child will grow up honest and not "light-fingered".

Nails and hair should never be cut on a Friday or Sunday and the nail parings should in all cases be buried. If the prescription above is followed for the first paring of a child's nail and the parings are buried under an Ash Tree, the child will possess a beautiful voice for song.

The audio accompanying this exhibit features the Tapiola Children's Choir of Espoo, Finland under the direction of Erkki Pohjola singing Giovanni Pergolesi's "Stabat mater". The choir is comprised of a group of 50 students of the Tapiola Secondary School, aged 11 to 15 years, many of whom had their first parings buried at the foot of an ash tree.