Dream dictionary: familiar faces dream meanings

…glitter proceeding from the innermost recesses of the skull. The face was fleshless and the skin, which was white and luminous, hung closely to the bones, which in places had broken completely through it. It was the face of the long since dead animated by the spirit of a devil, and I doubt if even the Hell of Dante could show such another. Familiar as I was with the sight of ghastly phantasms of all kinds, I had never seen one that impressed me with quite such a terror as this, and, as it glided slowly towards me with out-stretched arms, I verily believe my heart would have burst asunder and I should have died in my sleep, had not the spell that held me limb-tied been suddenly broken. With wild shrieks of despair I fled away, and from behind every bush and tree darted, similarly apparelled, huntsmen in close…

…— I hurried on, urged whither I knew not. It seemed to me that I was seeking some familiar spot — some known harbour of refuge against a vague, unimagined danger that pursued me; and, as I pressed forward, the air grew more and more oppressive. Then I met things — horrible things with clammy hands that tried to keep me back; and as I felt their loathsome touch and foetid breath a great weakness filled my limbs.”God of mercy!” I cried, ”Help me, and keep me from these.”Then in some inexplicable manner a new strength came into my body. Taking courage, I leaped forward; I hurled aside my assailants, and I could hear them mocking and cursing as I broke through them.Just as the haven I longed-for came in sight — and I know not what it was or how I knew it — I saw a beautiful maiden…

…now no longer strange to her, and she found herself turning first to the right and then to the left in the most familiar and natural manner possible, until she came to 119th Street, where her anxious eyes immediately travelled to the house she imagined was her own. It was a mass of flames, and at one of the windows she saw the white and agonised faces of her husband and children.With the fury of a tigress she beat and pushed her way through the dense crowd of fugitives, whom she besought — but besought in vain — to assist her in the rescue of her family. Eventually she arrived opposite her house. Her husband and youngest child were still at the window clawing frantically at the iron bars, through which neither of them could crawl, and as soon as they saw her they yelled and grinned, and thrust out…