…a level with my face, and, as I peered through it, a tall man in evening dress entered the room. ‘Mr. Montague, I suppose,’ I murmured to myself, mentioning the name of the banker. ‘Why, he’s actually wearing red socks, and has a coloured handkerchief and a sixpenny ready-made tie,” You see, sir, I notice every detail in a gentleman’s dress; and, as you doubtless know, nothing gives a show away so much as loud-coloured handkerchiefs and ready-made ties; no one in tip-top society wears such things.”Now I didn’t know much about bankers, as most of the people at whose houses I visited were real gentry, but I never should have believed that even a moderately well-to-do business man would have dressed like that. I was gazing at him in astonishment, when he suddenly approached the window, and, seeing me, threw up the sash. ‘Are you the policeman,’ he said,…

…the nature of the dream He sent me. I dreamed I was playing cards in a large, brilliantly illuminated nursery, my adversary being a child of about six years of age, who was seated directly opposite me. In his face and features I had little difficulty in recognising myself — that is to say, myself of long ago, when I was young and pure, without any knowledge save of what was innocent. We played some curious game that was quite new to me and which, strive how I would, I have never been able to recollect since. It was a game of speculation, and the stakes ran high, my opponent winning everything — everything, till at length I had nothing left to risk but my soul, which I staked and lost.I was then so maddened that I sprang from my seat and, seizing a knife, rushed on him and, despite…

…wood! Through the wood! Beware of the huntsman in the green hood!” struck the animal across the neck with her whip and was off like an arrow, whilst the sound of her words “Through the wood I through the wood!” etc., echoed and re-echoed through the still night air till every stone, and stick, and blade of grass seemed to take it and bellow it in my ears. It was in vain I tried to mount and follow. Every time I tried to get my foot in the stirrup, the beast slipped away from me, and I narrowly escaped a tumble. At last, in desperation, I made a frantic rush, but my steed melted into nothingness, and the next moment I found myself racing through the spinney in hot pursuit of my wayward companion. On and on I tore but no sign of the horse and its rider, only the…

…Soon after getting into bed one night (in January, 1908), I fell into a deep, blank sleep, from which I was abruptly torn to find myself at the entrance to a forest, a forest I knew, by sight, only too well. It was the forest of Trouble, and, willy-nilly, I had to enter it. On all sides, leviathan trees of the blackest ebony shot up hundreds of feet heavenwards, permitting only the feeblest rays of light to penetrate through their forked branches. What species of trees they were I do not know, for nothing I had seen outside my dreams resembled them. Their trunks were smooth, and in their mirror-like surfaces I could see reflected the workings of their innermost organs, whilst the rising and falling of their hollow voices was wafted down to me from on high, like the murmuring of wind from some mountain top. Nimble hands…

…— one stair — they are on me. I make up my mind I am caught, when behold, they pass me by, and on venturing to look up I see nothing! And yet the sounds are still going on, up, up, up, until they die away in the interminable heights above me — and all again is wrapped in silence. After a brief pause I continue my ascent, and presently find myself at the entrance to a long stone corridor, pierced with innumerable doorways. There is something so inconceivably grim in the cold, yellow atmosphere of this passage, something so horribly suggestive of a thousand uncanny possibilities in the aspect of its doors that I stand still, rooted to the ground with terror.Every moment, I expect to see the doors fly open and the horrors they conceal spring out on me. Nothing happening, however, 1 am congratulating myself that my…

…scents suggestive of all the charms of an idyllic summer; made me long to linger there for ever, and, in an ecstasy of delight, I flew from flower to flower, filling my lungs with their soul-inspiring nectar. While engaged in this entrancing pastime, I heard the joyful utterance of a bird, and on looking up, perceived a lark. With a movement of its little head, which plainly bade me follow, it flew slowly away, and, obeying its injunction I speedily found myself on the banks of a stream where a boat lay moored. Springing into it and taking up the oars, I pushed out into the middle of the current, the lark still continuing to be my guide.The stream, in whose marvellous pellucid depths was reflected the red green of the foliage that lined its shores, took a thousand turns, so that one could never see any great stretch of…

…crash, and engine and coaches vanished from sight, over the side of a precipice. The next moment everything changed, and I found myself racing into the railway station to get my ticket. The place was absolutely deserted, not a porter nor a passenger anywhere, and the train all ready to go. The office was shut, as is always the case when we are in a desperate hurry in Phantomania, but, being determined to make the clerk hear, I commenced a vigorous cannonade with my fist on the pigeon-hole door. Presently the latter flew open, and out popped a bald, white head, with such evil, lurid eyes and sinister smile that, shocked beyond measure, I staggered back. As I did so, I came into conclusion with a porter, who, without asking my permission, unceremoniously shoved me into a train, and, before I could recover my breath, we were off. The compartment,…

…or a ‘Tec?”I see I must explain myself,” she said, pulling out a chair from the table and sitting down.”Though I’m living in a big house in Park Lane, Mr. Bailey, I’m a poor woman. My husband has all the money, and not I.” “That doesn’t sound quite fair, ma’am,” I muttered, not knowing exactly what other remark to make.”Fair! Of course it isn’t fair!” she snapped. “Nothing is fair, is it? But come, I’m not here to expatiate on injustice. Have you ever been hard up, Mr. Bailey? You have. Good! Then you can sympathise with me. I am hard up— so hard up that I am anxious to sell my diamonds — a wedding present from my husband — and, being a wedding present and positively the only present he has ever given me, you can understand my difficulty. In short, I want to sell it, but dare…

…To dream of white horses foretokens good luck of various kinds; of black horses, serious misfortune in the shape of accidents (frequently on the water), deaths, loss of money or property, violent quarrels and rupture in love affairs; of roan-coloured horses, journeys; of grey horses, good fortune in many forms, viz.: legacies, presents, success in love affairs and work; of brown horses, nothing in particular; of chestnut horses, danger of all sorts, from fire, water, and other accidents, from assaults, and from illness. To quote even half the horse-dreams that have been told me would fill a book, so I must content myself with merely quoting a few. Shortly before a violent rupture with her husband, which terminated in a divorce, one lady I met told me she had dreamed she heard a loud neighing outside her house, and, on looking out of the window, saw a gigantic black…

…I often dream of the same town. Sometimes all the inhabitants appear wearing costumes of one colour, sometimes all appear wearing costumes of another colour, sometimes they all appear clad in black. Having dreamed one of these dreams quite recently, I append the following description:I found myself approaching the town from the direction of a desert. It was a glorious evening, and the walls and windows of the houses shone like burnished gold in the ruddy glow of the slanting sunbeams. But what impressed me on this occasion, over and above all, was the silence; it seemed assumed for a purpose and to be part of a plot, in which everyone and everything participated, and I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was to be the victim of some unpleasant hoax. I cast my eyes in all directions — there was not a soul to be seen — the…

…To dream one is falling portends an unexpected visit and an interruption in one’s daily routine.Who has not dreamed of falling? Of stepping over the edge of some mighty cliff or chasm and plunging — with all the sickly, giddy sensation of plunging — down, down, down, until, instead of experiencing the apparently inevitable final crash, one has awakened; This curtailed phase of the falling-dream is so ordinary, in fact, that it is generally supposed that one cannot, in falling down an abyss in a dream, actually arrive at the bottom.However, having had a contrary experience myself, I have to my own satisfaction at least proved this belief to be erroneous….

…I believe there are people who dream the same dreams repeatedly, even down to the most minor details. One of the dreams I am continually dreaming is as follows: I am walking along the sea-front of some popular watering-place, which, judging by the style of houses and appearance of the people, I should say was abroad. The sun is shining, the sea exquisitely blue; whilst, to enhance the beauty of nature, a band is playing, and playing remarkably well, some gay operatic music. What I see, what I feel, what I think, has about it nothing of the unmistakeable idiosyncrasy of a dream, but all is rigorously self -consistent. I am enjoying myself to the utmost, when, on turning round, I perceive behind me a tramp — a man with a shock head of red hair, and features that are ineffaceably stamped on my memory. He is a blight,…

…I have always tried to remember the dreams I have had in the delirium of fever and illness, and in many of these dreams there has figured the same woman — clad in black, with long, flowing, black hair, and wild animal eyes — eyes that might have be-longed to a woman of the stone age. Thrice, before the deaths of those I have loved, I have dreamed that this same woman has glided up to my bedside and bitten and pinched me. And on each occasion I have awakened with the sting of her sharp, cruel teeth, and her hard, bony fingers burning into my flesh. Can she, I ask myself, be the banshee? But to revert to my deliriums, the deliriums of my youth, in chicken-pox, and measles, and of my later days, in rheumatic fever, dysentery, and severe colds. Apart from this woman in black, who…

…same plight. Oh, what a day we’re having!’ But, before she had finished, Mrs. Gardner (don’t ask me to describe her) had fled from the room with a shriek; and I, catching sight of myself in the mirror, had all but fainted. I was nude — quite nude — absolutely and wickedly nude!”Well, cheer up! I ejaculated, “For you have got plenty on now, at any rate” — which was only too true, for Mr. Simpson was one of those people who, not content with excluding the fresh air, only partly undress at night and go to sleep in more than half the clothes they have been wearing in the daytime. On our arrival in port he received the welcome news — which he certainly lost no time in making public — that he had been promoted to another and more lucrative living.Dreams of this sort generally augur well….

…The flying-dream is, I believe, more common to people with the psychic faculty and artistic temperament than to others. I have sounded many artists and writers on the subject, and they tell me that they often dream they are flying, but seldom, if ever, with wings. I know the sensation well, for I frequently experience it in dreamland. Maybe, as I am walking along a road, I suddenly feel I can fly. I give a jump, and the next moment am moving through the air, a yard or so from the ground, with both feet close together. It is a most enjoyable sensation, and I am so entranced that I keep saying to myself: “It is real this time. I am not dreaming. I can fly at last.” I sometimes fancy I am in a room full of people, who naturally express the greatest incredulity when I tell them…

…the second place, to their insatiable love of foolish gossip. Now, however, as I gazed at the hideous countenance, and rubbed my eyes to make sure I was not dreaming, I felt that the gossip I had scorned was only too well founded, and I determined that nothing should induce me to sleep in that room again. The apparition was only visible for a very few seconds, and when I stirred it completely vanished. I have not only experienced this precursor of the occult myself, but I know others who have dreamed of ravens shortly before witnessing an occult phenomenon.I dreamed of a wren just before I got engaged to be married; and three of my correspondents always dream they see a wren prior to hearing of a marriage. Larks portend good news of friends and relations, and happy events generally. Linnets portend marriages; thrushes’ minor ailments and troubles….

…Rams in dreams denote quarrels of a more violent nature than do sheep. For example, I remember, when I was a boy, prior to a quarrel (which ended in a fight) with a schoolfellow, dreaming I was attacked in a field by a big black ram with red eyes, that chased me persistently over hedges and ditches, and through water, and when, in some miraculous fashion, I took to the air, it sprang up after me, never desisting from its fierce butting still I was reduced to a hopeless state of jelly, when I was permitted to awake. In after years, before quarrelling with a venomous attorney, I dreamed I was fishing in a weir, when a grey ram, catching me unawares, butted me in the back and precipitated me head first into the water, where I found myself attacked on all sides by slimy, yellow snakes….

…Sheep in dreams imply the advent of trouble in the form of family disputes and disagreements, quarrels with friends and neighbours.Apart from the experiences of those whom I have met, on which I have based the above statements, I have invariably found that after dreaming of sheep myself I have had to encounter much petty and uncalled-for disagreeableness….

…existence in a deep, brown river that flowed sluggishly by me, when suddenly a white fox came bounding down the street, and, stopping in front of me; vomited sovereign after sovereign. With a wild shout of delight, I sprang forward, and, clutching hold of the gold, was filling my pockets with it when I awoke. That day, I found myself the proud possessor of some hundreds of pounds I won in a lottery; but I attributed it all to the fox.”Another man dreamed he was flying a kite, when his coat-tails were violently pulled, and, on looking round, he saw a white fox that darted swiftly between his legs, and was suddenly metamorphosed into his uncle. The shock was so great that he awoke, and, a day or two later, heard the very same uncle he had seen in his sleep had died and left him his entire fortune….

…nasty “turns” by enemies, failures in work.I have often dreamed about fish. I remember once having a very vivid dream about a shark.I fancied I was bathing in a fresh-water pool close to the house where I was staying, when, to my surprise and horror, I suddenly saw the fin of a shark bearing straight down on me. I shouted for help, and the next moment found myself falling down a well with the shark, an enormous white shark, in full pursuit of me. On arriving at the bottom, I was abruptly transferred to the drawing-room of a house I had not visited or thought of for at least twenty years, when the first thing I saw on the tea-table, its baleful eyes fixed on mine with a malicious grin, was the head of the shark.I awoke in fear and trembling — as indeed I might after such a startling…

…Bears have always been associated with the unpleasant side of the occult. Those, however, that made such short work of Elisha’s tormentors, although undoubtedly psychic (since to appear and cause to disappear with such startling suddenness is only characteristic of the super physical), were to my mind far more opportune than they were unpleasant. Indeed, I might go further and confess that I should not be extremely sorry were such a demonstration of the occult bear, as that recorded in the Scriptures, to take place periodically amongst the ill-mannered and superfluous children of to-day. Many places are said to be haunted by evil spirits in ursine guise. I have myself visited a house in Chelsea where the apparition of a shaggy bear is seen, and it is a well-known fact that the Tower of London was once (and perhaps still is) haunted by the phantasm of a bear. A…

…their hands at her. As she gazed at them, dumb with the agony of despair, there was a hideous rending, tearing and tottering of woodwork and masonry, the entire building fell to the ground with the noise of thunder, and, with this appalling crash still resonating in her ears, Mrs. P awoke. This dream occurred contemporary with the last great fire and earthquake at San Francisco, and those to whom she narrated it — namely, those who, like myself, knew the city — were assured that her description of it was exact in every detail. Here again projection may explain much.Mrs. P , forewarned by a super physical power of a danger threatening those between whom and herself there was a strong bond of spiritual sympathy, had in her sleep unconsciously projected herself to the spot where the catastrophe was taking place, hoping thereby to save those she loved from…