Another dream, which the picturesque beauty of the Aussee inspired in my
daughter, at that time three and a quarter years old, is equally
straightforward. The little one had crossed the lake for the first time,
and the trip had passed too quickly for her. She did not want to leave
the boat at the landing, and cried bitterly. The next morning she told
us: “Last night I was sailing on the lake.” Let us hope that the
duration of this dream ride was more satisfactory to her.
My eldest boy, at that time eight years of age, was already dreaming of
the realisation of his fancies. He had been riding in a chariot with
Achilles, with Diomed as charioteer. He had, of course, on the previous
day shown a lively interest in the _Myths of Greece_, which had been
given to his elder sister.
If it be granted that the talking of children in sleep likewise belongs
to the category of dreaming, I may report the following as one of the
most recent dreams in my collection. My youngest girl, at that time
nineteen months old, had vomited one morning, and had therefore been
kept without food throughout the day. During the night which followed
upon this day of hunger, she was heard to call excitedly in her sleep:
“Anna Feud, strawberry, huckleberry, omelette, pap!” She used her name
in this way in order to express her idea of property; the menu must have
included about everything which would seem to her a desirable meal; the
fact that berries appeared in it twice was a demonstration against the
domestic sanitary regulations, and was based on the circumstance, by no
means overlooked by her, that the nurse ascribed her indisposition to an
over-plentiful consumption of strawberries; she thus in the dream took
revenge for this opinion which was distasteful to her.[AA]
If we call childhood happy because it does not yet know sexual desire,
we must not forget how abundant a source of disappointment and
self-denial, and thus of dream stimulation, the other of the great
life-impulses may become for it.[AB] Here is a second example showing
this. My nephew of twenty-two months had been given the task of
congratulating me upon my birthday, and of handing me, as a present, a
little basket of cherries, which at that time of the year were not yet
in season. It seemed difficult for him, for he repeated again and again:
“Cherries in it,” and could not be induced to let the little basket go
out of his hands. But he knew how to secure his compensation. He had,
until now, been in the habit of telling his mother every morning that he
had dreamt of the “white soldier,” an officer of the guard in a white
cloak, whom he had once admired on the street. On the day after the
birthday, he awakened joyfully with the information which could have had
its origin only in a dream: “He(r)man eat up all the cherries!”[AC]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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