day,
dreams appear to occur to a number of individuals, and those felt to be of
social significance usually deal with catastrophe or other foreboding
subjects. The following stories were told to me by the widow under the
shadow of witchcraft. When I asked her if she thought any of her friends
would tell me their dreams, she replied: "No I don't think no Washo would
tell you their dreams. But I'm not superstitious about them things and
I'll tell you these two dreams I had."

"One summer I was up at the Lake [Tahoe] with my husband and I had
a dream that the gambling house at Dresslerville [a structure
known officially as the community center] was on fire. There was
kids inside and they was screaming but there wasn't no water. I
saw the men all around with buckets but they couldn't do nothing
because there wasn't no water. I told my husband about the dream
the next morning and he said I should take a bath and pray. That's
what we do to keep a bad dream from happening."

The following winter the community center did in fact burn down. A young
Indian in a rage after having an argument with his father hurled a bottle
of kerosene against a wood stove. The resulting fire could not be
extinguished because the Dresslerville pump was not working. Whether the
dream was really a prophecy after the fact I do not know. It is
significant in any case that the prophecy appeared in the form of a dream.
My informant's second dream foretold the violent death of a young Indian
woman. The prophecy came true two years later.

Her statement that other Washo would be reluctant to discuss their dreams
was all too true, confirming the importance that dreams play in their
daily lives. A number of tangential remarks suggest that the belief that
dreams confer advance knowledge of the future and that they confer power
is still common among the Washo. One informant said, in talking about
"old-time dreamers": "Today a lot of people will say they had a dream
about something, and act real big. I just tell them they are crazy. They
aren't real dreamers. They couldn't have a dream about their girl friend."

Until very recent times a dream was justification for almost any group
activity. The most common motivation for such events as a pine-nut dance,
a war party, or a rabbit or antelope drive was usually that "So-and-So had
a dream." An announcement would be made and others would gather for the
event.

These dreams a