Every door was impassable; every window was barred. The idea of
interference from without was futile. Vainly I lifted my voice
and cried for aid. The street was desolate as a graveyard; the
only thing that moved about me was the stealthy blood that came
creeping out from beneath the doors of these awful dwellings. Wild
with horror I fled along the street, seeking some outlet, the cries
and moans pursuing me as I ran. At length the street abruptly ended
in a high dead wall, the top of which was not discernible; it seemed,
indeed, to be limitless in height. Upon this wall was written in
great black letters-- "There is no way out."
Overwhelmed with despair and anguish, I fell upon the stones of
the street, repeating aloud "There is no way out."
- Hinton, Jan. 1877
V. The Bird and the Cat *
I dreamt that I had a beautiful bird in a cage, and that the cage
was placed on a table in a room where there was a cat. I took the
bird out of the cage and put him on the table. Instantly the cat
sprang upon
-----------------
* This dream and the next occurred at a moment when it had almost
been decided to relax the rule of privacy until then observed in
regard to our psychological experiences, among other ways, by
submitting them to some of the savants of the Paris Faculty,--a
project of which these dreams at once caused the abandonment. This
was not the only occasion on which a dream bore a twofold aspect,
being a warning or a prediction, according to the heed given to it. (Ed.)
------------------
him and seized him in her mouth. I threw myself upon her and strove
to wrest away her prey, loading her with reproaches and bewailing
the fate of my beautiful bird. Then suddenly some one said to me,
"You have only yourself to blame for this misfortune. While the
bird remained in his cage he was safe. Why should you have taken
him out before the eyes of the cat?"
VI. The Treasure in the Lighted House
A second time I dreamt, and saw a house built in the midst of a
forest. It was night, and all the rooms of the house were brilliantly
illuminated by lamps. But the strange thing was that the windows
were without shutters, and reached to the ground. In one of the
rooms sat an old man counting money and jewels on a table before him.
I stood in the spirit beside him, and presently heard outside the
windows a sound of footsteps and of men's voices talking together
in hushed tones. Then a face peered in at the lighted room, and
I became aware that there were many persons assembled without in
the darkness, watching the old man and his treasure. He also heard
them, and rose from his seat in alarm, clutching his gold and gems
and endeavoring to hide them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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