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The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
28
THE
TWO
CURMAS
A
rustic
named
Curma,
of
Tullium,
near
Hippo,
Augustine's
town,
fell
into
a
catalepsy.
On
reviving
he
said:
"Run
to
the
house
of
Curma
the
smith
and
see
what
is
going
on".
Curma
the
smith
was
found
to
have
died
just
when
the
other
Curma
awoke.
"I
knew
it,"
said
the
invalid,
"for
I
heard
it
said
in
that
place
whence
I
have
returned
that
not
I,
Curma
of
the
Curia,
but
Curma
the
smith,
was
wanted."
But
Curma
of
the
Curia
saw
living
as
well
as
dead
people,
among
others
Augustine,
who,
in
his
vision,
baptised
him
at
Hippo.
Curma
then,
in
the
vision,
went
to
Paradise,
where
he
was
told
to
go
and
be
baptised.
He
said
it
had
been
done
already,
and
was
answered,
"Go
and
be
truly
baptised,
for
that
thou
didst
but
see
in
vision".
So
Augustine
christened
him,
and
later,
hearing
of
the
trance,
asked
him
about
it,
when
he
repeated
the
tale
already
familiar
to
his
neighbours.
Augustine
thinks
it
a
mere
dream,
and
apparently
regards
the
death
of
Curma
the
smith
as
a
casual
coincidence.
Un
esprit
fort,
le
Saint
Augustin!
"If
the
dead
could
come
in
dreams,"
he
says,
"my
pious
mother
would
no
night
fail
to
visit
me.
Far
be
the
thought
that
she
should,
by
a
happier
life,
have
been
made
so
cruel
that,
when
aught
vexes
my
heart,
she
should
not
even
console
in
a
dream
the
son
whom
she
loved
with
an
only
love."
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