Historical dream account · English · published source text
The Escaped Caterpillars
Horace G. Hutchinson
Dreams and Their Meanings (1901) · 1901 edition, chapter IV, printed pp.81–82; PDF pages 93–94; original scan leaves 95–96
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Another form of the bogey dream, and in a small way a peculiarly distressing one, was probably peculiar to myself, personally, but no doubt others have their own peculiar forms that are analagous to it. I used, as a boy, to keep numbers of caterpillars, in the hope — sometimes gratified, often frustrated — of their developing into perfect moths and butterflies to grace my collection. The peculiar form of bogey dream to which I have referred consisted in the escape of all these captives, which occupied their new freedom in crawling over my person in great numbers. The sensation of being crawled over by multitudes of caterpillars of the "woolly bear" texture was peculiarly irritating and distressing.
Source & context
A published personal recollection sent to, or personally recorded by, Horace G. Hutchinson and printed in his 1901 edition. Recurrent personal accounts are counted once, not once per occurrence. Where Hutchinson interrupts a quotation, his original reporting phrases remain in the excerpt. This is a personally recalled recurring scene with specific actions, not a generic list of dream types.
Horace G. Hutchinson, reported in Horace G. Hutchinson, Dreams and Their Meanings (London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901), 1901 edition, chapter IV, printed pp.81–82; PDF pages 93–94; original scan leaves 95–96. Primary witness: original 1901 edition at Internet Archive. The compiler, dreamer, and separately credited earlier recorder are distinguished. Editorial title and navigation themes added; no generated narrative or new translation.
The publication year is not the dream date. No exact dream date or present-day person location is inferred. Dates printed in the narrative remain source wording.
Public domain in the United States (1901 edition) ↗
The original English 1901 edition is public domain in the United States by expired publication term; Archive metadata reports NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT. No new Archive license or Public Domain Mark grant is asserted. The linked NoC-US statement describes the US-only rights basis; blanket worldwide clearance is not asserted. Hutchinson’s own writing and named or unidentified contributors are distinguished; no contributor is assigned the compiler’s death date. Hutchinson (own recollection).
Source locator and text provenance
1901 edition, chapter IV, printed pp.81–82; PDF pages 93–94; original scan leaves 95–96
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Whitespace/linewrap normalization, witnessed end-of-line dehyphenation, and listed scan-verified OCR repairs only. No dream narrative, person, event, translation or stylistic rewrite added.
- Account text SHA-256
- 84adb000c6c6054a8fbe00546cc5d6f3c178f746a988a9c02b7eaea3ea36ee11
- Source file SHA-256
- 40a41bb112104c3680401c260e060fde498bfe84e41f4394ee28e47f7e827b5f
Content notes
- Childhood nightmare
- Insects
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.