Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-10-31
/ Dreams and Dreamers.
From Harper's Weekly. &. $z55

From Harper's Weekly Ss& .S 81 Il .53
Dreams are in the main referred by /
the garage either to the entrance into /
him Of some outside gpi.rIitt as san,ang the
Feejeeans, who believe that the spirit I
Of living man will leave the body to
trouble sleeping folkor to the READ !
loings of himself When the Green
lander dreams ofhunting, or fishing, or
counting, he believes that the soul quits
the body ! the Dyaks OF Borneo think ak
that during sleep tbs soul sometimes
remains in the body or travels far away.
being endowed, whether present or alb
sent, with conditions which in walking
moments are LACKING, Wherever We
find q low state Of mental Development,
the like belief exists. In MIR. Thurnims
elaborate work on the Indians Of Guiana
we have corroboratiye evidence the
more valuable because OF its freshness
He tells as that the dreams which come
to the Indian are to b I'M as real as any
of the events Of his waking life. 70
him dream acts and waking acts differ
ouly in one respect, namely. that the for
mer ere done only by the spirit, The lat
ter are done BY the spirit in its body.
Seeing other men asleep and aiterward
hearing from them the things which
they suppose themselves to have done
when asleep, the Indian has no difficult
| ty in reccuciling that which lie hears
with the fact that the bodies Of the
sleepers were in his sight ard motion
1,r,
action, because he never questions that
the spirits, leaving the sIoepera, played
them part i'll dream adventures.
In the Scandinavian NatHsd;ala Saga
! there is u curious account VI three inns
who were shut up in Il I?.t three nights,
| and ordered by Ingilnllnl},: . Norwegian
chief, 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 GRAND,
| and on their awaking, at the emu of
three days, gave an accurate account of
the Vatnstlal, in Which Ingilnuud ulti-
| mately dwelt No wonder that III med
iaval times, when witches swept the air
and harried the cattle, swoouing and
| other forms of insenslbility were ad-
| duced in support Of the theory Of soul
absence, or thai We find among sayages
as the Tejads OF the Luzon Islands,
| objections to waking q sleeper, lest the
soul happens to be out OF the body. AS
a corollarv TO this belief in soul ab-
sence, fear arises lest it be prolonged to
the peril of the owner, and hence
rough and1 eady theory of the cause OF
disease is framed, for savages rarely
die in their beds That disease
is a arrangement of functions, in
terrupting tlleir natural action, and car
rying attendant pain as its indication,
could not enter the head Of the Jncivll~
! lied; and, indeed, among ourselves
cold or fever is commonly thought OF as
an 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 he food or drink, all
| diseases were regarded as their work,
! whether, as remarked above, through
| undue absence Of the rightful spirit or
subtle entrance of some hostile one.
| If these be the causes to which sickness
es are due, obviously the only cure is to
get rid of them, and hence the sorcerer
! of the medicineInan FIND their services
III request in casting out Ile demon by
force, or enticing him by calolery, or in
bringing back the truant soul.