The Mazzeri, Dream Hunters of Corsica
In Corsica, it was said some people went hunting in their sleep. If a dream hunter killed an animal with a neighbour's face, the neighbour would soon die.
What was reported
In Corsican tradition, a mazzeru (plural mazzeri) was a person, man or woman, whose spirit left their body at night and went hunting in the countryside. In their dreams they stalked and killed wild animals, often a boar or a deer.
When the mazzeru turned the dead animal over, they saw the face of someone from their village, who would die within the year. The mazzeri didn't choose this; they were seen as messengers of fate, feared and pitied.
Explanations offered
The belief, studied by the anthropologist Dorothy Carrington, may preserve very old ideas about dreams, hunting and death. It survived in remote mountain villages into the 20th century.
- When
- Believed into the 20th century
- Where
- Corsica, France
- Witnesses
- Corsican folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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