Note 56 — RELIGION

Dreams. Like all primitive people the Lhota attaches great importance to dreams.56 In them he believes that the souls of the dead visit him, and his own soul leaves his body and wanders.57 Thus, if a sick man in his delirium dreams that he is in a certain place he knows that his soul is under the influence of some evil spirit which is drawing it to that place, and takes steps to appease the fiend with sacrifice. Or if a man fights with another man in his dreams he believes that the two souls really meet and fight. To dream of the building of a new “morung” forebodes ill to the village, for the dreamer’s soul has travelled to the land of the dead and seen a new village being prepared there for those who are about to die. If a man dreams that he is carrying a child along the Road of the Dead the child will die, and the dreamer may die too. But to dream that he is driven back by dead men means that he will have long life, for the souls of those gone before are not yet ready to receive him.58 If in his dream a man go to another village he will not live long, for the other village is really that in the Land of the Dead, to which his soul has gone on ahead. Similarly, to kill a chicken in a dream is bad, for the chicken seen is the soul of that which will be killed at the dreamer’s death not long after. It is most unlucky to dream of dead men, for it means that they have come to call the dreamer. The only way of averting the disaster is to kill a big boar and give the meat to an old professional dreamer (hahang), who offers it to the souls of the dead in his dreams. The night before hunting too it is most unlucky to dream of a successful hunt, for it means that the dreamer’s spirit has been out hunting and driven all the game away.59