The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-05-26

some time in farmers house. Mr.
Baird, my landlord, had q servant maid
whose name was Sarah. was not lonG
that Sarah, particularly after receiving
an affront, or being angered, was accus
toned to rise in her sleep, to go out, an(
to walk about the fields. My curiosity
was excited, andI begged to be informed
the first time that Sarah should rise il
her sleep.
ga few nights afterward, one of Mr.
Baird's sons awoke me, and told me thai
Sarah had got out OF bed. immediate
ly hastened to the apartment where she
slept. When 1 arrived Mr.. and Mrs
Baird, one of their sons, and servart
maid, Sarah's companion, were present
Sarah was in the midst of them. took
my seat by her. She answered any
questions that were put to her pretty
distinctly; but she always mistook the
person who spoke, which gave us an op-
portunity of assuming any character
within the circle of her acquaintance.
"I knew that one of the farmers SER
wants, whose name was John Porteous,
was lover of hers; and therefore l ad-
dressed her in the style which 1 sup
posed John might have sometimes done.
From that moment she began to scold
me, and, in the most peremptory man
ner, forbade me ever to speak to her
again on that topic. The conversation
was accordingly changed. L talked of
her mistress, who was in the room, be-
cause I knew that they had occasional
quarrels. Till now, 1 suspected that the
whole was trick; but for what purpose
1 could not discover. Sarah, however,
abused Mrs. Baird in the harshest terms;
she said but the other day she had been
accused of stealing and drinking some
bottles of ale; that her mistress was sus-
piciOus, cruel and narrow-minded. AS
the mistress of the house was present
when these and other opprobrious terms
were used, L began to be shaken in my
preconceived notion of imposture, and
therefore changed the object of my ex-
periments and inquiries. l examined
her countenance, and found that her
eyes, though open, wild and staring,
were not absolutely fixed. took pin,
and repeatedly pricked her arm; but not
a muscle moved, not symptom of pain
was discoverable. At last she became
to leave the room, and made
several attempts to get out by the door;
but that was prevented by the domes-
tics. Perceiving her inability to force
the door, she made sudden spring at
the window, and endeavored to throw
herself over-which would have been
fatal to her. To remove every suspic-
ion of imposture, / desired the people,
with proper precautions TO prevent harm,
to try if she would really precipitate
herself from the window. A seemingly
free access was left for her escape, which
she perceived, and instantly darted with
such force and agility, that more than
One-half of her body was projected be-
fore her friends were aware. They,
however, laid hold of her and prevented
the dreadful catastrophe.
"She was again prevailed upon,
though with much reluctance, to sit
down. She soon resumed her former
calmness, and freely answered such ques-
lions as were put to her. This scene
continued for more than an hour. l was
perfectly convinced, Notwithstanding my
original suspicious, that the woman was
actuated by strong and natural impulses,
and not by any design to deceive.
CT aske if any of the attendants knew
how to awaken her. A female servant
replied that she did. She Immediately
TO my astonishment, laid hold of Sarah's
wrist, forcible squeezed and rubbed the
projecting bones, calling out at the same
time, Sarah Sarah BY this operation
Sarah awoke, stared with amazement,
looked round, and asked how so many
people came to be in her room at so un-
an hour. After she was COM
pletely awake, asked her what was the
cause of her restless and violent agita-
lion. She replied that she had been
dreaming that she was pursued by q
furious bull, who was every moment on
the point of goring her."
In the preceding case there is one
point worthy of especial note, and this is
the insensibility of the girl to pain when
her arm was repeatedly pricked. AS
will be shown afterward, this is phe-
which has recently thrown
quite novel interest over somnambul-
ism, and made it a subject of greater
The somnambulist IN Smellie's case
had not apparently the perfect power of
vision. She did not, or could not, rec
ognize the persons about her, yet she
saw window, and would have leaped
through it, knowing that passage was
practicable. The true condition of the
vision in somnambulism is indeed the
point most difficult to comprehend. The
boy who, according to the common
story, rose in his sleep and took anest of
young eagles from dangerous precipice,
must have received the most accurate
accounts of external objects from his
visual organs, and must have been able
to some extent to reason upon them,
else he could never have overcome the
difficulties of the ascent. He dreamed
of taking away the nest, and to his great
surprise found it beneath his bed in the
morning in the spot where he only
thought himself to have put it in imag-
ination.
The strange feat of q young man in
Cleveland, Ohio, in September, 1868,
shows similar vision and reason in sleep.
Just at daybreak he was seen walking up
and down the ridge of the roof. After
this he descended the sloping side to the
gutter, near which hung the branch of a
A : 4 \ n. IN.