A SOMNAMBULIST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2052, 29 May 1890, Page 3

A SOMNAMBULIST.

A housemaid at the Parsonage, Haddington, named Agnes Samuel, lost her mother, to whom she was greatly attached, in the month of May last year. The depression which this deprivation made upon tho girl’s mind gave rise to frequent dreams that she was either with her -poor mother or was going to meet her. After dreaming of her mother repeatedly one night she rose, put an ulster over her nightdress, a pair of stockings, a pair of gloves, and a hat. Thus attired, she opened and abut seven doors, three of which she either locked or bolted, between her bedroom and the street. She then started to walk to Clifford, a distance of four miles, over a rough, and in many places newly-macadamised, road. The morning was very dark and tempestuous. A high wind was blowing, and frequent and heavy showers of rain were falling. On reaching the churchyard, the gate of which was locked, she climbed over the wall and the iron railing upon the top of it, and, once within the enclosure, she made her way to her mother’s grave, and lay down upon it. How long she remained there is pn-i knovyn, but ]n this position she awoke

t three o’clock in the morning. Her first impressions on awaking were not those of fear and consternation, as might be expected, af the eerie situation in which she found herself, but rather of wonder and surprise as to how she got there. Having regained consciousness, she started towards her father’s house, a mile beyond the village of Gifford, and arrived there, much to the : surprise of her friends, at a quarter past three in the morning. She seems to have been quite, unconscious o£ anything during her rough walk, except an . idea, which she could not define as a dream, was floating through her mind that she was travelling over “smooth roads.’’