Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/113

Rh unduly magnified, it would not be wise to attach much importance to coincident dreams of this character. But the reader may be interested in seeing a specimen case.

An account of the incident described was sent to Mr. Andrew Lang on the 4th December, 1901, by Mr. Alexander Bell of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. On the 11th Mr. Bell wrote again, enclosing an account from Mr. Brierley, the dreamer:

No. 26. From

Mr. Bell kindly tells me that you are much interested in my dream concerning the death of Lohmann, and for what it may be worth I have pleasure in briefly relating what happened.

Shortly before seven o'clock on the morning of December 2nd I awoke, but, not being under the necessity of rising early, I went off to sleep again, and it was during this period that I dreamt Lohmann had died—I had no impression where, although I knew he was in South Africa—and I had to write a sketch of his career. I saw him playing again, and he was focussed very clearly before me in the act of delivering the ball. This, with a memory of the ﬁrst match in which I ever saw him,—the second match between the sixth Australian team and Shaw and Shrewsbury's Eleven that had been in the Antipodes the previous year. played at Old Trafford on September 13, 14, and 15, 1888, when he and Briggs dismissed the whole side for 35,—left a very vivid impression upon me when I awakened, and although I attached no significance to the dream, remembering the nature of my work, I mentioned the incident to my wife when I got down. At that time, of course, news of Lohmann's death was in the papers, but as I had left the office the previous evening by half-past nine, at which hour the cable message had not come through, I was in ignorance of it. Curiously enough, I did not see a paper that morning