…Rats, whether white, black, or brown, singly or collectively, import illness, death, and serious misfortunes.The night before his son was drowned at sea, a man I once met dreamed his bedroom was full of enormous black rats with grey eyes that raced round and round the bed, and eventually leaped into the empty grate and disappeared up the chimney.Another person, a lady in London, if I remember rightly, dreamed that she saw her youngest daughter sitting on the floor playing with a big brown rat that suddenly sprang at her, tore the ribbon out of her hand, and raced out of the room with it. Some days later, this particular daughter developed consumption, of which she eventually died….