663 A. In the Appendices to section 425 I have given some cases of premonitions occurring in dreams. Other precognitive cases are given in my article on "The Subliminal Self: the Relation of Supernormal Phenomena to Time" (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 334-593), and I quote here one of them (from p. 573). The narrative comes from Dr. A. S. Wiltse, of Skiddy, Kansas, personally known to Dr. Hodgson and myself as a careful and conscientious witness, who writes: -

This incident occurred in Morgan Co., Tennessee, I think in the spring of 1878. Mrs. Wiltse and myself had spent the day with her mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Todd. I had passed most of the day with Mr. Todd in the field where he was planting corn. We retired early, and Mrs. Wiltse almost immediately fell asleep.

Mr. Todd and myself being wakeful, lay and talked. There was but one room, in which there was an open fireplace containing fire mostly buried up with ashes, a large pine knot having been laid on top of these embers, and so nearly buried in ashes as to give about a one candle power of light....

While we were talking, I saw a picture slide on to the wall at my feet, at such a height as to rest easily in the line of my vision. I called to Mr. and Mrs. Todd to cease talking, and told them what I saw. The picture was some feet in size each way, and remained before me long enough for me to describe [it] in detail to them. It was a landscape, the main features in which were a river with a large creek emptying into it very nearly at right angles. When I had given a full description, the picture disappeared with a quick movement like that with which it had appeared, but in the opposite direction from which it came. Mr. Todd said, " You have described Emerald River and Rock Creek where it empties into it," - which I thought correct, as I was familiar with the two streams.

While we were talking, another picture slid on to the wall in the same manner as the first one. It was the same picture as the first, with the addition of several open fields and wooded lands along the banks. In one of the fields was a log-house with its surroundings which I did not recognise. The picture remained stationary until I had described it thoroughly, when it disappeared similarly to the first.

Both Todd and his wife said I bad described the "Cass Davis House," which was about a mile distant, across the river. At this another picture slid on to the wall, the very counterpart of the second one, except that a good portion of the landscape was left out, but the house was there, the door of which was closed, and as I announced its appearance, I heard the muffled report of a gun on the inside of the house, and immediately afterwards the door flew open and a man rushed out seemingly in a great fright.

At this point Todd said, "See here, Doc, are you seeing these things, or just playing off a drive on us?" I assured him that I actually saw, or seemed to see the things I described, although they did not seem possessed of solidity, but were more as if one should breathe over a looking-glass, then stand at some distance from it and observe his image; it would look shadowy and dim.

In the meantime the door of the house in the picture had been left open so that I could see into the house, where I saw a man staggering toward the door with blood running from his mouth. He reached the door, where he supported himself by leaning against the door-facing, and steadied himself off the doorstep on to the ground. In so doing he left the print of his hand in blood upon the door-facing.

At this point the picture again disappeared and was immediately replaced by another much the same as the other, but in it the dead body of* the man was lying on the ground some few feet from the door, while from the field advanced several people, with hoes and mattocks in their hands, who gathered round the body in apparent excitement and consternation, when the picture vanished and I saw nothing more.

I asked Todd if he was sure of the house; he assured me that it bore the exact description I had given. I asked if there was any rumour, or ever had been to his knowledge, of a tragedy having occurred there. "Not that he had ever heard of." I believe I said that "something of the kind has occurred there or else will. If it is past we may never know it; if it is to come, we may see".

When the corn which Todd had planted that day was ready for hoeing, I was with him again in the field a portion of a day, and together we left the field and started to go to Wartburg, the county seat about two miles distant. On the way we met Cass Davis, a quadroon, who asked us if we had heard of Henderson Whittaker killing himself. We had not, and he told us that during the (forenoon, I think) Whittaker went into the house, where Mr. Haun was sitting alone, and asked Haun to loan him his rifle to go hunting. Haun pointed to the corner where the rifle stood, saying, " I don't know whether it is loaded or not." Whittaker put his mouth over the muzzle to blow into the gun, pushing back the hammer with his foot. The foot slipped off and the gun was discharged into his mouth. Haun ran out into the field for help. The hands came up and I think found the young man dead in the yard. I have also been told that the hand-print of blood was left upon the door-facing, but these lesser points can be learned best from parties who lived in the neighbourhood at the time. The main points are absolutely certain.

The tragedy occurred in the house I had described, and was of substantially the nature I had described from the picture-writing on the wall.