more benignly, a spirit may appear to a family member in a dream and request a spouse. marjorie topley, in "ghost marriages among the singapore chinese: a further note," relates the story of one 14-year-old cantonese boy who died. a month later he appeared to his mother in a dream saying that he wished to marry a girl who had recently died in ipoh, perak. the son did not reveal her name; his mother used a cantonese spirit medium and "through her the boy gave the name of the girl together with her place of birth and age, and details of her horoscope which were subsequently found to be compatible with his."