UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works

Title Scholars as People: Dreams, Idle Dreams

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Journal Current Anthropology, 7(3)

Author Lowie, Robert H.

Publication Date 1966-06-01

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California • As the outgrowth of my sceptiCism Japanese occupation, and the influx. of Fieldwork Planned about theories of prehistoric culture as U.S. culture and should reveal many and Begun reconstructed from ceramic data, I interesting and complex cultural propose to investigate a modern dump features. The archaeological data will • Fieldwork was planned, on behalf as a control case in arch2eological in­ be compared to the ethnographic data of the American University at Cairo, terpretation. I want to determine in such ways as: (1) the ratio of in the western desert of Egypt early whether a "traditional" interpreta­ shards to utensils made of other in December, 1965. Under the super­ tion of shards collected from a recent materials found in the dump com­ vision of Dr. A. Boujra of the dump near a living community really pared to the ratio in use in the com­ American University and Dr. A. M. corresponds to conditions and practices munity; (2) the ratio of unusual to Abou-Zeid of Alexandria University, within that community as determined common pottery types in the dump twO teams were to investigate such by ethnographic study. Although a contrasted with the ratio in use in the problems as tribal organization, land modern, civiliz.ed community differs community; (3) a theoretical re­ tenure, customary law, modernization, in many respects from an ancient or construction of the history and circum­ and urbanization among the Bedouins, primitive one, this experiment should stances of the accumulation of the etc. The study is mainly concerned improve our interpretation of mate­ dump tested against the data obtained with the problems of nomadism and rials from ancient or deserted sites. through community study; and (4) the sedentarization and it is expected that For this purpose, a small 30-50 significance of stratification as deter­ the results will he of use to competent household community with a single mined by the history of the com­ authorities as a guide in planning dump-yard in the environs of Seoul, munity and reconstructed by the ex­ sedentarization projects. Korea, will be selected. The focus will cavation team. A. M. ABOU-ZEID be on the period 1900-50, which in­ WON-YONG KIM Ramleh, Egypt cludes the end of the Yi Dynasty, the Seoul, Korea

SCHOLARS AS PEOPLE mention is the extreme specificity of my dreams. I do not dream that a man is going down a street looking for a house number, but that a clearly­ Dreams, Idle Dreams' nor as gaudy as mine. Since I seem to seen, elderly man with white hair and have been chosen as a dreamer par a reddish scar on his left cheek is by ROBERT H. LOWIE excellence, perhaps it is my scientific walking with a pronounced limp All my life I have been a chronic and duty to put on record some of my along East 78th Street in Glendon, persistent dreamer. Not only do I somnic experiences. Utah, looking for number 408. There dream, as it appears to me at least, I should first like to make a few is rarely anything vague about either continually throughout every night, in comments about the general nature the action of the plot or the dramatis addition, I often hear voices or see and characteristics of my dreams and personae. visions when I am lying with my eyes about their effects upon me. Perhaps A third point which has always in­ half-closed, JUSt resting. It has always the oddest thing about them is that trigued me is the rather casual par­ been so with me. From a boy I have they almost never have an emotional ticipation in my dreams of those to been, in doze or sleep, a visionary. At accompaniment of any SOrt. They are whom I am actually most devoted­ various times in my life I have kept a dramas that unfold themselves upon a my parents, my sister, and my wife. "dream diary," writing down each stage. Even when I am a participant, To be sure, they appear fairly often morning those dreams that I could re­ I am also a spectator. It is probably but I rarely see them; they are simply member from the night before.2 Since this play-like quality that robs them of there, perhaps accompanying me, per­ dreaming is of interest as a psychic emotional involvement. I do not have haps merely looking on. They may phenomenon I shall venture presently nightmares, I am not frightened, ex­ have a minor role in the drama, but to describe a few of my better efforts. cited, disturbed, or upset. Even if I they are not often important. I t is odd that I should be the one to think in a dream that an experience By cOntrast there is the frequent lapse into dreaming. Awake I am a is somewhat unpleasant, I have no intrusion into my dreams of com­ matter-of-fact person with an orderly feeling of revulsion or disgust. The pletely unknown individuals, whose mind and-by repute, at least-little bizarre associations which my un­ features are clear and unmistakable. I imagination.3 I know several people conscious mind presents me are merely would recognize them should I see who are full of fanciful notions and entertaining, whatever their nature. them again. If I were an artist, I could others who are not a little fey, but My only feeling is one of delight at draw them in complete detail. Yet to their dreams are neither as frequent the quaint notions I have had. To me the best of my knowledge and belief dreaming is great fun. I have never seen them before. I have A second point I should like to always wondered why, when I already I This article was written in 1957, about 6 months before my husband died. I added know hundreds of people, I go to the only the last dream. luella Cole Lowie. 3 This reputation was without foundation. trouble of inventing new ones. Even f One notebook containing recorded dreams My husband had plenty of imagination, but when I dream of an authentic histor­ is in the Archives of the University of Ca· it was ot an unusual type and he rarely gave ical character or of a real acquaintance lifornia Library, it free rein. L.c.L. I am as likely as not to clothe him in

378 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY flesh that is utterly unlike any picture went deep, for decades later I was still a cab, but had to get into the seat by or waking remembrance of his actual fairly often haunted by somnic images swinging my legs over the driver's appearance. of myself vainly trying to stay the din body,-a very troublesome business. I The effects of my dreams upon me of unruly youngsters in a classroom. chose the shorter. cheaper route to my may also be of interest-and they Pleasanter aI}d even more enduring in destination, for I had only 82.00 in have always had eHects. At an age their influence were my 14 years at the my pocket. At the end of the trip the when my friends were all violently American Museum of Natural History driver demanded S7.00! We started opposed to religion in all forms and I in New York. Periodically I still wrangling, with results unrevealed. Re­ toO was inclined to be an atheist on wander at night through its endless peatedly I have missed railroad con­ strictly logical and scientific grounds, corridors, go up and down its nections or worried over relatives left I could never quite believe that there elevators, talk with its personnel, or behind at a station or, lost my ticket were no psychic forces in the world slink OUt by its rear exit. or vainly fumbled for the wherewithal because I could not shake free from Typical anxiety dreams-but with­ to pay my fare. (Let Freudians make the inexplicable in my own dreaming. out the feeling of anxiety-disturbed the most of it!) On the other hand, it Although I often gave lip-service to me before my oral examinations for was gratifying one night to find in my the opinions of my friends, I could the doctorate. One night I passed wallet two $15.00 bills (sic) for a trip not become the hardboiled rationalist through a hall where my major pro­ to Calgary. There is also the zest of that I certainly wanted to be when I fessor, Franz Boas, was talking to a discovering places not yet on our maps, was young, largely because my eerie tall, cadaverous-looking individual as when my sister and I were bound nocturnal experiences did not seem to who was entirely strange to me, and for Cigaretteville or when our train my logical waking mind to belong to I overheard their conversation: "\Vill arrived at Arkins, Montana, where she a wholly mechanical world. In later you let him (me) pass?" asked the un­ gOt off to distribute hymn books, in­ years my dreams helped me greatly Identified stranger, and Boas answered, sisting petulantly that people accept in understanding visionary experiences "No, he's tOO blond." This remark did her gift. While my sister might con­ of primitive peoples. I toO hear voices not in the least upset me in the dream, ceivably distribute hymnals, it is most and see visions. For instance, as I although at the time I felt during my assuredly not in her to insist upon sit dozing over a book, I catch sight waking hours the usual anxiety and their acceptance by strangers. of the brilliant-eyed head of a woman, uncertainty· of a doctoral candidate Though never in Russia in the flesh, no larger than a penny; or I hear a whose hour of doom is approaching. I made a nocturnal journey there, re­ fellow-studem's wife speaking French, A few nights later I had a typical an­ cognizing the bulging cupolas of Mus­ which, even in the dream, I am aware xiety dream of so vivid a nature that covy as our train pulled in. In Italy, that she cannot speak; or I hear words I still recall it much as I recorded it too, I traveled before I had been there. strung together in defiance of com­ the following morning. The setting was Arriving at a city, I found the crowd mon sense, as when an elderly, clearly­ essentially realistic-the west side of cheering a swarthly little general seen Viennese explains in slightly ac­ Schermerhorn Hall on the Columbia named Sergi (incidentally the name of cented German how his son migrated campus, where a flight of steps leads a well-known anthropologist) whom I to America: "My son came over down to the level of Amsterdam recalled having seen previously in the as a one-hundred-and-twenty-year-old Avenue. Only the dream staircase was same country. l<\Vhere could it have boy." The difference between me and immensely high, and several moving been?" I pondered. "It couldn't have an Eskimo shaman who has heard a vans were poised at the top, about to been Venice, for that unique place I'd meaningless jumble of sounds or a drive down the stairs. I asked the never have forgotten; it must have been Crow visionary who has seen a strange drivers in my most polite Austrian at Turin or Genoa or Milan." apparition is that I do not regard such manner to allow me to go down first But there is no need to go abroad to experiences as mystic revelations, and, taking their permission for grant­ experience interesting things in sleep. whereas they do. But I can understand ed, I began walking down, holding on Once the librarian of the American the underlying mental and emotional to the handrail. \Vhen I was about Museum conferred on me the title of experiences a good deal better than halfway down, however, the handrail Civil Engineer and promised me a most other ethnologists can, because came to an end; so did the steps, and Ph.D. the same afternoon. Then there I have identical episodes every night I stood on the edge looking down into was the episode of the barbershop at a and almost every day of my life. an abyss and thinking to myself. "If time when I was affecting a Vandyke I have tried at various times to this keeps up I shall certainly get beard. Without receiving any instruc­ classify my dreams, but I have never dizzy." Uncertain what to do I sat tions, the barber shaved my face clean. been successful, although certain com­ down on the last step, where I had to His anteroom was crowded with mon types maybe mentioned briefly hang on to my gray Fedora hat be­ Italians. whom he tried to eject, and then dismissed. Like most other cause the wind was blowing so hard. waving a revolver in his left hand. people I have had many dreams that At this juncture I noticed that the When some of the intruders continued resulted from physical stimuli. When vans had already begun to clatter to linger, he scared them off with an I was a young man, erotic fancies down behind me. The line of vans immensely long arquebus. Oddly thrust themselves forwards; at various filled the entire width of the steps, so enough, I bought a railroad ticket at ages, digestive difficulties brought there was no avoiding them. But I the very same shop-and odder still, I about disturbed and confused dreams; awoke before I could discover my bought it without knowing what place just before my prostate operation, I fate. I do not recall that I was in the I was headed for. When I examined had frequent dreams about searching least frightened; I merely wondered the ticket it was. much to my surprise, for a toilet. On one occasion I dreamt JUSt what was going to happen to me, marked «Niagara Falls:' Quite recent­ that I was winning a foot-race but but there was no nightmarish quality ly, in one night, I witnessed a series was cheated of victory because my left to the experience. of peculiar occurrences, all of which foot went to sleep-whereat I woke Travel, always a favorite pastime, seemed to take place in Walla Walla. up, and my left foot was asleep. often a professional duty, has made me First, at a Shakespearean performance Another large group of my dreams cover considerable ground in reality, two ladies in the audience began sud­ centers around my occupation. As a but much less than in sleep. There have denly to sing so loudly that they very young man I tried teaching in been many accompanying rribulations, drowned OUt the actors entirely. Next, elementary school and proved a dis­ but also rewarding episodes. Once, I entered a large hall, in one section mal failure. The experience evidently upon landing in a strange city, I took of which about a dozen little Indian

Vol. 1 . No.3. June 1966 379 children were lying on classroom ed traveler who visited my favorite the waltz has not yet been invented!" benches set 10 solid rows. Then, Indian tribes a hundred and twenty Apparently my critical faculties do situated upon a beautiful boulevard. I years ago, welcomed me to his home. not slumber altogether. found a never-never restaurant; Unfortunately I recall nothing else For whatever use they may be to memory of a divine meal there still about him except that h~ was a large, those who are interested in the nature lures me thither, but I shall never round-faced man-which incidentally and structure of dreams I will present again find it. clashes with other descriptions of him a few culled from my notebooks. They In my dreams I often meet people as a person of cadaverous leanness. are in order, but they are not of any whom I know only by reputation or About the same time 1 ran into particular type. They have been select­ historical characters long since dead. Alexander von Humboldt, who asked ed merely as representative of what In my student days I read Karl me to meet him in a park nearby. might be called my run-of-the-mill Pearson's The Grammar 0/ Science; There the Dean of the Graduate dreaming. Some psychologist may be one night the great biometrician ap­ Division of the University of Cali­ able to use the material to prove or peared to me, and we engaged in a fornia was waiting for us in a small, disprove something, and even the wholly rational talk about statistics. antiquated auto. On the ground was a casual reader may find some of the Curiously enough, however, he was large and clumsy-looking saddle that experiences of interest and very likely trying to retrieve some object that had the Dean intended somehow to stuff similar to incidents in his own dreams. fallen into a chink, while I was re­ into the small luggage compartment. He wanted us to help him, but I re­ 1908. I was standing with Professor Ed­ covering fragments of a soft hat and mund B. Wilson in a classroom. He was a derby. On one of my nocturnal rail­ fused upon the grounds that my com­ examining me on what purported to be a red road jaunts a Mrs. Vanderbilt was a panion was a foreigner. The Dean cedar. He asked me why certain leaves were fellow-passenger. She gOt off at a finally pUt the saddle on tOP of the differentl}' shaped from others, also whether station and walked bareheaded down vintage-1920 Ford and drove off or nOI a member of the genus was to be the middle of the street. I followed in a huff. Von Humboldt and I found in my part of the country. In the her until she suddenly halted before a decided to take a walk. I was wonder­ meantime the class was having a written ex­ medieval-looking structure. There she ing JUSt what would be the proper amination. Some pupils tried co exchange inkwells, but I made them put them back exchanged greetings with a tall, thin mode of address for me to use in again. Suddenly a Dr. Tower came in, lead­ female wearing a coronet and a cross speaking to him and finally decided ing a strange-faced man whom he introduced on her head, while a man in period upon "Herr Baronchen," which seems as Prof. Xerxes. This stranger was to dress was standing nearby. hardly felicitous. 1 asked him how he address the class on MacuCUJ, TinamuJ It sometimes happens that distin­ felt towards the several languages in major, while the class was still writing the guished acquaintances turn up at night his polygot repertory, but Morpheus examination. I prolested that the pupils would not tarry for an answer. Very would ~ toO disturbed by the lecture to do in atypical situations. In 1930 I had their best work. Dr. Xerxes then senl for attended a scientific gathering at the casual were my contacts with Dr. Sa­ what appeared to be a navy officer, named Ethnographic Museum of Hamburg muel Johnson years ago. I ran into Dulouhosch, who made me stand in a corner and made the acquaintance of its him at a bookshop resembling Bre­ for incompetence. director, Professor Thilenius. A year or tano's in New York, but he soon dis­ twO later I met him in a dream, stand­ appeared without a word through a March 18, 1908. Mamma, Risa (~y ing at the side of his horse, within a swinging door. Oddly enough, the sister, and I were eOlering a strange Ctty meeting at the time left me with a in an open vehicle that seemed to be a stone's throw of the since demolished kind of toboggan. It slid down a track which McCown's Tavern in upper Central sense of gaining a much better under­ was on an inclined plane, and on the way Park, New York City. He was hold­ standing of the sanitary arrangements down we nearly ran over an oldish man ing a volume of Edgar Allen Poe's in 18th-century England. His French with bright red hair and spectacles; also, he tales, as he tOld me one of the plots, contemporary Voltaire was slightly carried the white cane used by blind people. that of the nonexistent "Daughter of more articulate, although his question Mamma and Risa started for the ladies' Calixtus"-a title which seemed so was hardly to have been foreseen: room, but on the way Risa fell into a hole in the floor, and I had to pull her out. probable to me that I could not be he pointedly asked me JUSt why American anthropologists felt as they Suddenly I discovered that I was wearing sure it really was nonexistent until I only an undershirt, which I pulled down as had looked up Poe's writings. The did about Paul Radin, a[ the time one far as I could when I saw a woman des­ central point of the plOt was that the of my fellow-students at Columbia. cending from Ihe upper floor. I wanted to daughter made her father promise \Vith Friedrich Schiller, the German buy both clothes and a tickel ae the ticket­ to give her eleven-hundred-and-twen­ poet and dramatist, I became really office, but of course had no money. having ty-four times as much money as he chummy-in fact, I took him under left it in my coat and trouser pockets. How­ made. After his summary of the story my wing. It seems that he was greatly ever, the ticket seller gave me a handful of smitten with a young lady of quality, coins amounting co $.37, among which was Thilenius swung himself up onto his a Canadian five-cent piece, which I identified mount and rode off. I told my wife whose haughty mother discouraged his because it had a squarish hole in the about this dream at breakfast the next attentions. I infused spirit into the shy middle! With this money I slepped into the morning and asked her if she had ever lover, and we jointly crashed a party men's room and bought an entire outfit of heard of anyone named Calixtus. She at the dowager's house. By way of clothes-with $.37. replied that there were at least twO recommendation I told her that Schil­ popes of that name and that they lived ler had invented a German system of May 25, 1908. I dreamt that I was stand­ shorthand. Notwithstanding these cre­ ing by watching a Paiute medicine man in the 12th century. Upon consulting examining Abraham Lincoln, who appeared Brockhaus I discovered that the must dentials she snubbed both of us and to be ill. The comparison in height between important pope by that name was prevented the poet from dancing with Lincoln's 6 feet and 4 inches and the pontiff from A.D. 119-1124. The coin­ her daughter. But when she heard me Paiute's 4 feet and 1 inch was ludicrous. cidence in the numbers is obvious, speak English, my mastery of the lan­ Lincoln finally had to kneel so that the but I am at a loss as to how it can be guage mysteriously raised her notions medicine man could listen to his heart. The explained. of our social status. Relenting, she Indian was explaining the merits of his race. But most exciting are those somnic asked me to dance with her. This emphasizing their use of a certain zigzag ornamentation, which I saw distinctly in the sallies into the past, when I rub precipitated a quandary that ended the dream. Then I overheard someone behind shoulders with the illustrious dead. dream. "\Vhat kind of step shall I me saying that Lincoln was really a coward Only a year or so ago Prince Maxi­ dance with her?" I asked myself: and had jumped through the window of an milian of Wied-Neuwied, lhe renown­ "I'd like w waltz, but I can't because i·train during a railroad accident at 8th

380 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Avenue and 116th Street in New York. where he lived' and he answered, "Nurem­ spanked him. Outside the grounds we met Suddenly I found myself in the elevator of berg," Then all of us were walking toward what I considered to be a U.S, army the same station. I seemed still to have the one of the exits in Central Park but found officer, but he wore the kind of gaudy Paiute with me. On the way down, the ourselves separated from the street, which uniform that was familiar to me in my elevator began to fall; so the Paiute built lay at a depth of perhaps one hundred feet Viennese childhood. We walked on to the a fire on the floor, made incense from sage­ below, by an immense pile of luggage, some rear entrance to a little park in Vienna (it brush, and by this means brought the of which belonged to the Nuremberger. was a park that really exists there, in which elevator to an orderly stop at the usual This pile we would have to damber down. I have often walked). We both thought the place. Father, who was a small, deft man, solved scene indescribably beautiful. At the far end the problem neatly by greasing the under­ of the park was a low monument that ex­ April 17, 1946. I dreamt last night that side of a suitcase, sitting down upon it, tended horizontally much further than any I was at a banquet table and had to deliver and sliding a Ia toboggan down to the monument I can remember seeing. I said to two speeches, For the first one I raised my street, but I felt that I was much too big Risa, "Unless my memory fails, that is the glass and said, "Skol." For the second I and too clumsy to use this method effec­ Grillparzer Monument." (There is such a again raised my glass and said, "Tak." The tively, I finally managed to climb halfway monument in Vienna, but it does not stand queer thing about this dream was that these down, but with a good deal of slipping in this park, nor is it of this shape.) I "speeches" gave me an inordinate sense of and stumbling. At that point I discovered might add that this entire dream was carried satisfaction with myself, plus a feeling that I to my joy a sort of chute such as one sees on in German; I dream impartially in either had at last mastered Hungarian! in children's playgrounds, seated myself language, German or English, but never in upon it, and was down in a twinkling, a mixture of the two. May 8, 1911. Last night 1 dreamt that I where I found Mother and Risa, who ap­ was in a hospital but without being iii. I plauded me. August 31, 1946. I dreamt that I had wandered upstairs, very lightly.clad, when been appointed as head of the Anthropology a physician approached me, so I fled back July 16, 1946. I was traveling across Department at Columbia (where I had been to my own room, where I found two women Mexico with various people, including teaching during summer school) with Bo· patients, one with a child into whose mouth Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) who did not soras, Strons, Essene, and an unknown a doctor was putting medicine. One asked look in the least like his pictures and was Diamond under me. The entrance to my me if I knew Louise Cobb (a member of very fussy. He wanted me to open the office was on the east side of Broadway, the women's athletic department), Marie window for him, but I told him I was no and one went up an interminable flight of Henze (another member), and the latter's mechanic. Later on, I discovered' that the stairs to reach it, but upon arrival found a husband, Everett Glass, I started to tell them straps which were supposed to go around fine lavatory just inside the entrance. I com­ my experience in Seville, where a vice· my huge suitcase were far too shoft, so I plained to Kroeber that I could easily bawl consul asked me if I knew Everett Glass, asked him what I should do about the out the younger men if I needed to, but that who was at that time living in the next matter. He answered, "No window, no it would be embarrassing to cal! down any­ room to me at the Faculty Club, but no one straps." At which, he walked out of the car one with the age and fame of Bogoras. I would listen to me. Annoyed by this in­ and completely off the train, although I seemed to be quite certain that there would difference I decided to leave the hospital in estimated the speed (in the dream) as being be frequent need for discipline and that I a clandestine manner. I got dressed-l have about sixty miles an hour, As my car went would be incapable of administering it. a vivid recollection of exactly how 1 knotted past the next station platform I was surpris­ my four-in-hand tie-picked up some books ed to see him standing there unhurt and September 27, 1946. I dreamt that Cora from the hospital library and, holding them smoking an enormously long cigar, which DuBois-who did not look in the least like in my left arm, sneaked downstairs, At one was, however, bright blue instead of brown herself but was a round, -rely-poly, red· point I had to dodge into a room because I in color. faced, and rather noisy woman-had saw a doctor coming up the stairs. Eventual­ challenged a male author to a boxing contest. ly I walked outdoors and away from the July 12, 1946; August 30, 1946. I was in A large crowd assembled, including the hospital, but then 1 began to wonder how I a room at the American Museum of Natural people with whom Cora usually stayed when was ever going to return the books to the History in New York. Bella Weitzner and she visited in Berkeley, There was much library-evidently my academic conscience two men were there, all of us ready to start excitement, I bought a ticket, after an argu­ does not sleep. Then I decided that I would for a party. As we proceeded down the ment with the ticketseller "3S to whether the come back with my Father to the opposite corridor, we met a complete stranger, who, cost was $2.30 or $3.40. Cora disappeared side of the street from the hospital and let however, immediately left us to enter one to make herself ready for the bout. When him go in and return them. of the offices, but he was baulked in this she came back the whole matter reduced intent because the knob was off the door, itself to the reading of a scene from a play June 3, 1946. Two nights ago I dreamt and the mechanic who was fixing it said the written by her adversary, in which there that Father, Mother, Risa, and I sat down to room couldn't be entered till a week from were remarks supposedly detrimental to his a party dinner in a restaurant with Dorothy Tuesday. Miss Weitzner explained that the reputation. Apparently, even my sub­ Klein (a girl who was a family friend) and stranger was a foreigner and spoke only conscious mind would not accept Cora as a twO completely strange ladies. For some English! This remark prompted me to tell boxer, reason we shifted tables and had to take our her that I had invented an imaginary phrase cutlery along with us. I dropped practically in Spanish and should use it in a Spanish April 25, 1953. Several nights ago I the whole works, breaking a valuable por­ speech that 1 was presently to deliver. The dreamt that I' was in New York City at celain plate. The accident produced a terrific phrase turned out to be "igualmente her­ probably the 59th Street Station, not the noise, almost exactly like that made a few mana," which so far as I know is no inven­ subway. A spiral staircase led into it, and nights before by a young roomer who was tion. As we approached the elevator we there was sumptuous decoration inside, trying to tiptoe into the house at 3 A.M. were joined by Nelson, who has his own suggesting an opera house. The passengers loaded with skis, ski-poles, ski-boots, and method of riding in an elevator: he climbed were seated in something like a theatre sundry other paraphernalia, missed his foot­ up and sat on the roof. lobby, where an elderly Irish woman had ing in the dark, and dropped everything, laid out numerous crackers with caviar and including himself, down the stairs with a August 7, 1953. Risa, Mary Haas, and I the like, also pieces of cake, I had to content horrendous clatter. After the meal Father were together, wandering through a univer­ myself with the latter because, the caviar and I walked ahead of the ladies, but pre­ sity building and peeping into classrooms was all gone, much to my annoyance~al· sently failed to see them any longer, in­ and laboratories. Mary talked of going to though when awake I don't even like caviar. ferring that they had turned off on a side Chicago to meet someone named Lukas street. We met two Germans, one tall and Longkorn, a person whom she described as April 27, 1953. I was walking in a Co­ broad and wearing a huge Stetson hat, the having a face that was "unangenehm und ronation Parade alongside of Winston Chur­ other shortish and slim, with a hatchet face fein" (unpleasant and refined), For some chill, who looked like his picture. I told and a goatee. As we walked along, a Ger­ reason I was expecting that Risa would join him that the pageantry was far superior to man city on a broad river floated into our Mary Haas in Chicago. Suddenly Risa and I that of a Fourth of July Parade in New vision. I thought at first it was Weimar were walking along in front of a large York City. I had an uneasy feeling that at but reflected that the river was much too estate. Coming towards us was a little boy. some point in the ceremonies he would wide; then I thought perhaps it was Ulm, I explained to Risa that he was extremely have to take a special position and would although I could not seem to see any mischievous. He was crying and told us that therefore leave me without a partner, some­ "thod"l ,pi". I "kod one of tho Gorm'n> his t,acher had spanked him, whereat I also thing that once happened to me at a Uni­

Vol. 7 . No. J • June 1966 381 versity Commencement. Churchill seemed to send him a package of my dirty laundry. meal of juicy steak, a curiously shaped sort disgruntled about some of the people in line He was at the time in Milwaukee. He at of potato puff, a preparation of gteen beans ahead at uS and thought we should have once sent it back to me, writing on the out· known in Vienna as FieJo/en, and a stunning been nearer the front of the procession. I side of the more or less cylindrical package fruit salad. I told my wife I was going back had SOme dates in a little pouch, similar to that he did not want it, I felt quite irritated to sleep and see what kind of dessert would the one in which 1 carry my Zurich knife, that I had troubled to send the package to be forthcoming. But in vain! I merely got and offered them to Churchill, requesting him in the first place. With it under my onto a train with two dwarfs-one named him to return the pouch, but I had a pre· arm I went into a largc meeting in a Baningo-and set off to collect myths among sentiment that he would not do so. restaurant, where I sat next to Professor the Blackfoot, as lance actually did but Fischel of our Semi tics Department. After minus dwarfs of whatever name. i\Iay 5,1953. I was a captive in the home a while the whole company sang "Die zwei of an elderly, bewhiskered enemy. His face Grenadiere" in part quite incorrectly, it September 19,1957. I was leaning OUt of was entirely clear to me but completely un· seemed to me. known. First, he subjected me to a written the third or fourth story window of an apartment in New York when I saw Paul examination and then hinted that he would August 10, 1956. Night before last I had Soon do away with me. An apparently the only prophetic dream of my life to date Radin walking below me on the street. 1 friendly and sympathetic man, of short (1956). Two days ago in Copenhagen 1 ran down the stairs and overtook him. I asked him if he knew I had been sick; he stature and with a saturnine face, arrived received a telephone call from a Danish evidently did but made very little of it. He and told me that 1 should escape. 1 replied student who hoped to entcr the University that the same notion had already occurred to of California and wanted to talk to me. 1 was headed for a secondhand bookstore, whither 1 accompanied him. He went me. Then Clark Wissler, looking exactly explained to him that I was leaving Copen­ through several rows of books and then like himself, appeared and said he had a hagen on an early train the next morning, called my attention to an autobiographical plan for my rescue. The two men then whereat he countered by proposing to meet book in German by Jacques Loeb and his engaged in a Sort of debate as to what me on the ferry, since he lived near the would be the best plan, bUt 1 developed one Danish end of it, and to talk to me during wife. As frontispiece for the volume there of my own, leaped upon my enemy, grasped the crossing. 1 had never seen him, and he was a picture showing both of them before him by the throat, and threw him down on had never seen me, but he felt sure that he a class. I asked the shopkeeper how much the book cost and understood him to say a sofa. Then 1 walked OUt of the house. 1 would be able to find me, so we did not $4.00. I then showed him that the back do not recall that I had the slightest feeling bother with descriptions. During the night cover was almost torn off and said that of nightmare or fright after this telephone conversation I dreamt that I saw a young man about to (ross a 1 thought the price excessive. 1 complained May 16, 1953. I was in London, walking railroad bridge where there was only one also that [he binding was red instead of blue. The dealer replied that I could have along a rugged path in a park and thinking track. The bridge was much like that at of Darwin. Suddenly I came upon a group of Poughkeepsie, New York. I warned him that the book for $.86, so 1 bought it. While Bohemian intellectuals-all strangers-and sat a train was about due. Disregarding my 1 waited for Paul to finish his purchases, I dipped into my new possession and read a Clown beside a young lady, selecting her advice hc walked out onto the bridge but passage in which a student was described as because she was so ugly that 1 thought she had to jump over the side and hang from being very r/ramm (robust) and as having would expect no amorous advances from me. the ties beneath it, while a train thundered I told the group that when 1 had to give over his head. 1 saw the man very clearly, made a disturbance in class. Paul wanted to linger on-he was still searching for a copy a public lecture 1 always first looked into both before he went onto the bridge and as Voltaire's Dicl;onaire Philosophiqlle for a he was hanging from it. At this point 1 of "The Gospel According to St. Jerome" (Jic)-but presently 1 left in order to go to proper climatic sentence to close my speech woke up. About six hours Inter I saw a with, and then worked my speech backward young man approaching me on the ferry and a place called Grafton, a name I have seen from there (a method I do not use in my recognized him instantly as the character of on a map but have no personal knowledge waking hours). 1 waS also going to quote my dream. The resemblance was not one of. To begin my travel 1 had to take the elevated. However, my method of ascend­ from Voltaire's article on Cromwell, hundred per cent, but it was sufficient for ing to the platform was unusual. 1 kicked a "Paraui tant de fois it cessa de J'etre," but identification. my partner kept interrupting me so that I lever, was seized by someone who strapped was never able to say it. The host said that September. 1956, Radcliffe-Brown and 1 a sort of harness under my armpits, and was hot soup was about to be served, and I was were both going to take a train from Grand wafted upwards by power supplied by what very thankful because 1 was hungry, but Central Station and were waiting on an appeared to be the hind end of a hook-and­ actually all I gOt was a dish of soupy ice elevated platform for transportation to the ladder. A large, burly man with a bulbous cream, and I was unable to finish even that Station. He told me that a certain Muenter nose and a raucous voice untied me from the because the whole party packed up and left. had been "mitrioteered." I didn't under­ Straps that had raised me, threw the harness 1 walked away, accompanied by my host, a stand the ward and asked him to repeat it, On the ground, said, "Griiss Gott"-the usual little, agile, lev,fish·looking man with a which he did, but I didn't understand it any Viennese greeting-and took off in a beauti­ monocle in his left eye. I explained to him better the second time. I also wondered ful and prolonged swan dive that was still that 1 was "an unalterable Anglophile." We whether or not Muenter lived in Muenchen. in progress when I awoke. walked along through the park crowded At that moment Paul Radin arrived, having With people with the sun shining brightly, evidently planned to meet me there, al­ It is adventures such as I have re­ and 1 said to myself that this was the very though 1 had not been aware of his inten­ lated above that make dreams a joy, sight 1 most enjoyed. Presently 1 asked my tion. He looked at th~ clock and saw that it One shakes off the fettcrs of prob­ host what was the cause of the tensions I was only a little after nine, but whether ability and glides through the centuries had felt in the group we had left, but he night or morning I do not know. I said as though astride a Wellsian time made no reply. Instead he invited me to a there would be plenty of time to eat. Then lallIe. I asked him how he knew the word it occurred to me that I didn't know what machinc. Events of the highest in­ telling him it was specifically Viennese. He train 1 was going to take, so 1 asked Rad­ credibility become commonplaces, and said he had been frequently in Vienna and cliffe·Brown who said his was the Owl. I there seems to be no limit to the seemed to like the city, although he made a suggested eating somev.'here nearby, but bizarre juxtaposition of normally un­ few derogatory remarks about it. Suddenly suddenly Paul appeared balancing several related ideas. It is no wonder that he began to execute the Russian knee dance bowls of soup, so the three of us sat down when I turn in at night I feel that I in the park, a performance that promptly in the middle of the elevated platform and may be launched upon the most ex­ collected a great throng of people. had our meal there. citing part of my septuagenarian exist­ June 10, 1953. Last night S. A. Barrett October, 1956. Yesterday morning I ence. (who was ht'te only a week ago) wanted me awoke about six o'c1ock 3fter :l magnificent Submitted, 1965, by L. C. L.

382 CURRENT .... NTHROPOLOGY