Stories About Sleep-Walkers.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 478, 7 June 1890, Page 6

Stories About Sleep-Walkers.

A Cornish miner was found one morning by his fellow workmen when they descended the shaft. He was lying in his night shirt on the ground fast asleep, and was totally ignorant of the way in which he had reached the bottom of the mine. His home was nearly a mile from the mouth of the shaft, and the ground that lay between the two was extremely rough. He must have walked over this uneven ground and descended the mine whilst fast asleep. The most peculiar part of this occurrence was that, so far as could be ascertained, the man had never before shown any tendency to walk in his sleep. In his waking moments he would nob have dared to attempt the descent of the mine without a light, yet he safely accomplished thedangerous feat in his sleep. A medical man named Pritchard had a patient who was very fond of riding, and who used to frequently rise in the middle of the night, make his way to the stable, saddle his horse, and go out for a long ride, returning to bed without being in the leash conscious of his actions. Dr. Macnish, of Edinburgh, tells of an Irishman who swam more than a couple of miles down a river, and was found by the roadside as fast asleep as he had been belore he accomplished this extraordinary feat. Dr. Gall mentions a miller who used to set his mill working in his sleep, and successfully superintend the grinding of large quantities of corn. He was astounded to find his work considerablyadvanced in the morning, and being of a superstitious turn of mind was inclined to pub the mysterious assistance down to kind fairies. His friends finally discovered his propensity, and enlightened him on the subject. Somnambulists sometimes exhibit marvellous powers of memory, though in the ordinary case they have not been at all remarkable for mental attainments of bhjs or any other kind! Fqr instance, Moritz told of a bosket-maker who was quite illiterate, and who yeti used in his sleep to preach post eloquent sermons, showing great dpctrinal knowledge. It was discovered that these discourses were exact reproductions of sermons whjch he had heard delivered in the phurch of the parish where he had resided as a child more than forty years before.—From M Cassell’# Saturday Journal,”