MEASURING WHILE ASLEEP.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1799, 6 October 1888, Page 2

MEASURING WHILE ASLEEP.

The ordinary freaks of a somnambulist are strange enough to excite wonder; yet now and then the sleep walker performs a deed which not only astonishes but suggests that our philosophy is unable to explain all things in heaven, or even on earth. An English mason named Williame was ordered by his employer one, evening to go early next morning to a churchyard, the wall of which had recently been repaired, and measure the work.

Williams went to sleep thinking of the order, and intending to rise at daylight. He dreamed that he rose with the dawn, walked to the churchyard, measured the wall, and noted the figures in his book. Suddenly the church clock struck two, and he awoke in utter darkness to find himself actually in the graveyard, with his rule and book in his hand. As it was in the summer, he waited until daylight, walking around, and then discovered on examination that he had entered in the book figures denoting the amount of masonry repaired in feet and inches.

He remeasured what he had measured m the dark while asleep, and found the result to agree with the entries in his pocket book. On thinking it over he remembered that every object on the way appeared to him as distinct as usual, and that nothing had happened which suggested that he was not awake till the striking of the clock aroused him, and he perceived that he was awaking from what he thought was a dream.