"One night I dreamt that 1 making a call on some matter of business, I was shown into a fine great drawing-room and asked to wait Accordingly, I went over to the fireplace in the usual English way, proposing to wait there. And there, after the same fashion, I lounged with my arm upon the mantelpiece; but only for a few moments. For feeling that my fingers had rested on something strangely cold, I looked, and saw that they lay on a dead hand; a woman's hand newly cut from the wrist

"Though I woke in horror on the instant, this dream was quite forgotten - at any rate for the time - when I did next day make a call on some unimportant matter of business, was shown into a pretty little room adorned with various knick-knacks, and then was asked to wait Glancing by chance towards the mantelpiece (the dream of the previous night still forgotten), what should I see upon it but the hand of a mummy, broken from the wrist. It was a very little hand, and on it was a ring that would have been a "gem ring" if the dull red stone in it had been genuinely precious. Wherefore I concluded that it was a woman's hand.

1 Imagination in Dreams by Frederick Greenwood.

"Coincidence. The dream certainly taught nothing, and had no discernible purpose. Yet visions of severed hands on mantelpieces are not common, and, with or without previous dreaming of it, few men have actually seen one, even when taken from a mummy case, in that precise situation."

This is seemingly a frivolous dream, but the fact remains, and as Mr. Greenwood says, hands severed at the wrist are not common things.

Many have dreamed of people whom they have never seen, only to see them after the dream, and recognise them. Also many have dreamed of events which have "come true" at some future time. The following are instances:- 1

"Premonitory dream of the visit of a commercial traveller who asked for a subscription to a novel. Precipient, Maria Manzini.

"Signorina Maria Manzini, at my request, kept an account of the dreams which occurred in her ordinary sleep. Some were remembered spontaneously in the morning and some in her next somnambulistic state. In the latter case I suggested to her that she should remember and record them after waking.

"I think the following case was remembered in somnambulism, but this is of no consequence, because Signa. Maria, following my advice, recorded not only the date of dreams, but also the date and the hour when she wrote them down. In any case the present dream was recorded before its fulfilment

1 Vol. xi., part xxix. of Proceedings S. P. R.

"This is what I find in the record of Signa. Maria's dreams:-

'Night of 26th-27th March, 1894.

'I dreamt that the door bell rang on the S. Pietro side of the house. I went to open and found a tall man about forty years old, with greyish trousers and a darker overcoat He was very polite, and asked if I would subscribe to the issue of a novel. saying that afterwards I should have a pair of earrings as a prize. I said no, because I thought it was an imposture.'

"27th March, 1894, 11 p.m. I did not read the account of this dream till after its realisation, but am perfectly certain that Signa. Maria told it to me directly, and I also distinctly recollect that when Signa. Maria related the realisation a few days later, she said I ought to remember her preceding dream; and I remember also that I not only recalled it, but that I looked at once at the record to see if it had been written down according to rule. I found that it was correct and that it agreed with the vivs voce story. Besides, though Signa. Maria may not always be diligent in recording dreams she hardly remembers, she is very careful to put the exact date, and is therefore quite certain that the dream occurred either in the night of 26th-27th March, or at most (supposing the case to have been complicated by a paramnesia which displaced the dream in time) on 27th March, at 9 p.m.; about which time, as can be seen from my journal of the somnambulistic experiments. Signa. Maria was in somnambulism in my presence.

"On the evening of 31st March. ie., four days after the dream, Signa. Maria told me that on that day about 3 p.m. the visit of which she had dreamed had taken place. Everything coincided; the entrance of the person by the door towards S. Pietro, his age, his insinuating manners, the colour of his trousers and overcoat, and the object of his visit.

"1 called her mother, and asked her to describe the visit with all possible details; meanwhile I took the following notes: 'The person came twice; the first time about 11 a.m. when Maria was out Signora Annetta (her mother) was alone in the house. The visitor had very pleasant manners, and was about thirty-five years old (Signa. Maria thought forty), He had a box covered with black cloth with him, much as is used by commercial travellers. He said he came to show them a novelty. In order to get rid of him. Signora Annetta said that Signa. Maria was not at home; he replied that he would return, and Signora Annetta told him to come at 2 pm. At 2 p.m. he the box, samples of the earrings, of the frames and two oleographs between pasteboards.'

"Luigia Monti and Linda Bigoni were also present. Maria refused the offers. When they and the man were gone, Maria remarked with surprise that she had already dreamt of the scene with all its details, i.e., as far as the man was concerned. Signora Annetta added that from girlhood she also had frequently dreamed of coming events.

"31 st March, 1894,9.30 p.m. (written in the presence of Annetta and Maria). It was necessary to prove two things, before the case could be supposed to be evidential. First, that the visit was real and not an odd hallucination of the senses or memory, and secondly, that the man had not made the tour of Padua, offering his merchandise many days before the dream; in which case Signa. Maria might have become aware of it in some way or other, and thus have originated the dream herself.