| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: was the atmosphere. A fire, the size of which attested the desert
Indian's love of warmth, blazed in the middle of the hogan, and sent part
of its smoke upward through a round hole in the roof. Eschtah, with
blanket over his shoulders, his lean black head bent, sat near the fire.
He noted the entrance of his visitors, but immediately resumed his
meditative posture, and appeared to be unaware of their presence.
Hare followed August's example, sitting down and speaking no word. His
eyes, however, roved discreetly to and fro. Eschtah's three wives
presented great differences in age and appearance. The eldest was a
wrinkled, parchment-skinned old hag who sat sightless before the fire;
the next was a solid square squaw, employed in the task of combing a
The Heritage of the Desert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: enabled us to understand each other perfectly, even though they
were unable to believe or even to comprehend the truth of my
origin and the circumstances of my advent in Caspak; and finally
they left me saying that they would come for me before the dance
of death upon the morrow. Before they departed with their
torches, I saw that I had not been conducted to the farthest
extremity of the cavern, for a dark and gloomy corridor led
beyond my prison room into the heart of the cliff.
I could not but marvel at the immensity of this great
underground grotto. Already I had traversed several hundred
yards of it, from many points of which other corridors diverged.
The People That Time Forgot |
