No, it's not the title of a cloyingly cute independent film, but a neutral description of this post.
I just returned from a second short visit to Vienna (Thanks, UM, for putting me up!). I will post much more on the weekend, but as a teaser, this is what I found at a flea market in Hietzing:
It's the "Complete Gypsy Woman's Dreambook — With Lotto Numbers and Many Illustrations." Published by Gustav Swoboda Brothers, Vienna, District XII, no date (1920s?).
The book contains 90 pages of explanations of what various images and ideas in dreams signify, drawn from "the oldest Babylonian, Assyrian, and Arabic-Egyptian manuscripts, and revised according to the experiences of old Gypsy women." I'll translate a few entries and post them later.
In the back of the book, there is a table of lucky numbers and days, and then 10 pages of eerie "picture tables" illustrating various types of dreams. Here's an example (click to enlarge):
The full set is here.
An interesting sidenote: the German edition of this book was banned (g) by the Nazis.
I'm not sure how these picture tables are supposed to be used. Do we have any experts on Central European folk culture here? If so, enlighten us please in comments.
Well, the picture tables simply tell you what lottery numbers to pick, based on your dreams. (If you dream of the sun, that’s a 1, and so on). Check out this, the process is described there in detail. I’d say it’s worth a try!
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Did the Nazis ban other books about (or purporting to be about) Gypsy culture? Or were they opposed to books on magic or dream interpretation in general?
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Rebecca, they banned that worthy tome for being a crass case of Antiziganist racism. Oh, wait, no, that came later. Dammit. Anyway, doesn’t the spooky figure seem to have a mustache? What’s s(?)he dreaming of?
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