334 
DREAMS. 
its signifi cation , and they are almost as skilled in interpreting 
them as Atemidorus himself. 
If a person dreamed of a sick relative, and imagined he 
saw him in a very ghastly squalid state, apparently on the 
point of death, it would be considered a sign of his speedy 
restoration to health ; but if, on the contrary, he appeared 
to be quite well, that would be a sign of death. To dream 
of seeing the dead, is a sign of death to the living, and 
of seeing the living a sign of good. Manihera, the night 
before he was murdered at Taupo, dreamed that he saw 
several of his friends who were dead, and said to those 
around, he felt sure he should be in the Reinga himself 
before the next night ; his interpretation proved to be too 
true ; that very day he and his companion were cruelly 
murdered. 
To dream of ascending a precipice to a pa on the top of a 
hill, without success, is a very bad sign, and a sure token of 
failing in whatever pursuit the person may be engaged. 
To dream of being speared, is a sign of meeting some 
person or friend ; on a journey through a lonely forest, one 
of my natives had such a dream, and so general was the 
expectation of meeting some one next day, that my com- 
panions repeatedly hallooed, that the person who was 
supposed to be coming might hear them. If, in the time of 
war, when two parties went out against each other, and slept 
with only a little space between them, one should dream that 
he saw a kakariki, green parrot, in the oven, divided into two 
parts, it would be a sure sign of his own death the next day. 
If a person dreams of another squeezing the juice of the tutu, 
coriaria sarmentosa, on the road, it is a certain sign that a 
murder will be committed ; the juice of tutu being the emblem 
of blood. If you dream of a rat being caught in a trap, it 
is also a very bad sign, and a sure token of murder. If of 
seeing a person's hair singed, it is a sign that his head chief 
will die. If you dream that you see a person eating, who 
does not offer any portion of the food to you, it is a sign of 
death. If of a friend who is on a journey, and that you 
speak to him and receive a reply, it is a sure sign that per- 
