SRI LANKAN SUPERSTITIONS ON PARING OF NAILS

Since Sri Lankans normally use their hands instead of fork and spoons to consume their food it is
common to see them pare their nails regularly so as to prevent any dirt accumulating underneath
the fingernails, especially on the right hand. Today, this is followed mostly in rural areas than in
cities.
There are certain superstitions regarding the paring of nails which are followed even to this day
by these folks.
One is the strict warning by the elders not to pare the nails once dusk sets in and not to leave
pared pieces of fingernails all over but to carefully dispose of them or even bury them.
The logic behind disallowing nails to be pared during dusk is since during the olden days rural
villages hardly enjoyed neither modern electricity facilities nor manicuring tools.
Hence, the young are directed by their elders not to throw away their nail clippings on the ground
to be trampled upon by others. In addition, they warn the children that dropping nail clipping on
the floor would bring a curse upon them and they would be doomed to wander the streets as
beggars. Hence, every single nail clipping is carefully disposed of in order that no one may step
on them. No child would ever dream of walking the streets as beggars, would they? Most
children adhere to this warning without much arguing.
Again, the logical reasons behind this warning may be different. It is only very recently that the
Sinhala rural homes have begun having cemented floors. They were either paved with brick,
granite or simply smeared with a mixture of clay and cow-dung. It is also customary among the
villagers to leave their foot-ware at the entrance to the home before entering since they walked
inside the home bare-footed.
Pieces of pared nails left on the mostly uneven and sometimes with cracks and niches floor are
liable to prick the feet causing injuries, especially in homes with small children. Therefore, it is
important to learn at early stages of their lives the habit of disposing the clipped nails
appropriately.
They are not allowed to clip nails at night, presumably to avoid any injuries to the fingertips.
This may be due to the non-availability of modern manicure instruments unlike today and since
the knives or sharp instruments that they used to pare nails were not safe to use under dim lights.
There is also a folktale regarding this superstition. According to village folk, there was a prince
who used to frequent villages to learn the situation among the people and inform his father, the
King. During such a visit, he had seen a beautiful village damsel and had fallen madly in love
with her. He had begun visiting this village frequently and finally expressed his love to the girl.
The girl hesitated initially since her father was an ordinary farmer, her mother had died and she
was cared for by her aunt, her fathers younger sister. However, they could not resist the
advances of royalty and had to accept the princes visits.

As is common, village gossip began increasing and the girls aunt wanted to see her niece
married to the prince. But how could she do this?
She hit upon an idea and one day, when the prince visited their home, she carefully placed some
nail clippings on the floor near the entrance doorway. On arriving, the prince stepped on them
but since he failed to take notice had returned to the palace.
Since a piece of the nail clipping had pierced his foot, it began festering and turned into a major
wound. Even the royal physicians had been unable to make it heal as they had failed to notice the
embedded piece nail clipping. The King, who loved his son dearly, announced that he would
reward handsomely anyone curing the prince.
Then the village damsels aunt came forward and volunteered to do so through her niece. The
king agreed and the aunt directed the village damsel to proceed. Since she too was conversant
with the healing practices of the village, normally using herbs etc, she undertook the task, but
after her aunt had directed her to first remove the embedded piece of nail clipping.
She did this and the local herbal medication healed the prince, upon which the prince declared
that since she had saved his life, he would marry her despite her being from the ordinary class.