The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1884-11-21
Dreams and Drsa.nsrs.
From Harpsr's Weekly.

Dreams are in the main referred by
ehe savage either to the entrance into
him Of some outside spirit as among the
Feejeeans, who believe that the spirit
pf living man will leave the body to
Erouble sleeping folk-or to the real
doings of himself. When the Green
lander dreams ofhunting, or fishing, or
SQUIRTING, he believes that the soul quits
the body; the Dyaks of Borneo think
that during sleep the soul sometimes
remains in the body or travels far away,
being endowed, whether prssen or ab-
sent, with conditions which in walking
moments are lacking. Wherever We
ind . low state Of mental development,
the like belief exists. In Mr.. Thurnim's
elaborate work on the Indians of Guiana
We have corroborative evidence the
moro valuable because of its freshness.
He tells us that the dreams which come
to the Indian are to him as real as sny
Of the events of his waking life. To
him dream acts and waking sets differ
only in one respect, namely, that the for
mer are done only by the spirit, the lat
ter are done by the spirit in its body.
Seeing other men asleep and afterward
hearing from them the things which
they suppose themselves to have done
whom asleep, the Indian has no difficult
ty in reconciling that which he hears
with the fact chat the bodies of the
sleepers were In his sight ard motion
less throughout the time of supposed
action, because he never questions that
the spirits, leaving the sleepers, played
their part in dream adventures.
In the Scandinavian Vatnsdmla Saga
there Is curious account Of three Firms
who were shut up in . hut three nights,
and ordered by 1ngimund, o Norwegian
chisf, to visit Iceland and inform him of
the line Of the country where he was to
settle. Their bodies became rigid, and
they sent their sons ON their errand,
and ON their awaking, at the end of
three days, gave an accurate account Of
the Vstnsdal, in which Ingimund ulti-
mately dwelt. No wonder that in med
iseval times, when witches swept the air
and harried the cattle, swooning and
other forms Of insenslbility were i'd
duced in support of the theory of soul
absence, or that We find among savagee
-ss the Tejads Of the Luzon Islands-
objections to waking . sleeper, lest the
soul happens to be ont Of the body. AZ
. corollary to this belief in soul ab.
sence, fear arises lest it be prolongedtc
the peril of the owner, and hence Q
rough-snd-l eady theory Of the cause Of
disease is framed, for savages rarely
die in their beds. That disease
is . arrangement of functions, in.
.terrupting their natural action, and car.
rying attendant pain as its indication,
could not enter the head of the uncivil-
lied; and, indeed, among ourselves .
cold or fever is commonly thought of e
IN entity in the body which has stolen
in, and, having been caught. must be-
somehow expelled. With the universal
primitive belief in spiritual agencies
everywhere inhaled With the breath or
swallowed with the food or drink, all
diseases were regarded - their work.
whether, % remarked above, through
undue absence Of the rightful spirit Or
subtle entrance Of some hostile. one.
II these be the causes to which sioknsss.
q ars due, obviously ths only cure "a
Ct I'D Of than, and hsnee 10 soseaese
d ~ msdicins-man And tlelss ssgViipe
IN yoqneGt in casting oak ~ R0
loeee. o. 1n1ieng hfn ~ ell ~ n
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