k; to which he
instantly replied 'No,' in order that he might get some more, though he
had been served in his turn. It was explained to him that this was a
wrong thing, and wouldn't do, and that he was to be locked up in a room
for it: which was done. Soon after this, he had a dream of being bitten
in the shoulder by some strange animal. As it left a great impression on
his mind, he told M. the Director that he had told another lie in the
night. In proof of it he related his dream, and added, 'It must be a lie
you know, because there is no strange animal here, and I never was
bitten.' Being informed that this sort of lie was a harmless one, and
was called a dream, he asked whether dead people ever dreamed[114] while
they were lying in the ground. He is one of the most curious and
interesting studies possible."

The second case had come in on the very day that Dickens visited the
place. "When I was there" (8th of July) "there had come in, that
morning, a girl of ten years old, born deaf and dumb and blind, and so
perfectly untaught that she has not learnt to have the least control
even over the performance of the common natural functions. . . . And yet
she _laughs sometimes_ (good God! conceive what at!)--and is dreadfully
sensitive from head to foot, and very much alarmed, for some hours
before the coming on of a thunder storm. Mr. Haldimand has been long
trying to induce her parents to send her to the asylum. At last they
have consented; and when I saw her, some of the little blind girls were
trying to make friends with her, and to lead her gently about. She was
dressed in just a loose robe from the necessity of changing her
frequently, but had been in a bath, and had had her nails cut (which
were previously very long and dirty), and was not at all
ill-looking--quite the reverse; with a remarkably good and pretty little
mouth, but a low and undeveloped head of course. It was pointed out to
me, as very singular, that the moment she is left alone, or freed from
anybody's touch (which is the same thing to her), she instantly
crouches down with her hands up to her ears, in exactly the position of
a child before its birth; and so remains. I thought this such a strange
coincidence with the utter want of advancement in her moral being, that
it made a great impression on me; and conning it over and over, I began
to think that this is surely the invariable action of savages too, and
that I have seen it over and over again descr