| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: end of my tale and you will surely forget the rest. For one month
you will live with your wives, and this month you will pass in
feasting at all the noblest houses in the city. On the last day of
the month, however, you will be placed in a royal barge and
together with your wives, paddled across the lake to a place that
is named "Melting of Metals." Thence you will be led to the
teocalli named "House of Weapons," where your wives will bid
farewell to you for ever, and there, Teule, alas! that I must say
it, you are doomed to be offered as a sacrifice to the god whose
spirit you hold, the great god Tezcat, for your heart will be torn
from your body, and your head will be struck from your shoulders
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: leading into the throne-room of the mighty High Ki. Here they all
paused, and the Ki-Ki both turned to the prince and Nerle and said:
"You are the only persons, excepting ourselves and the palace
servants, who have ever been permitted to see the High Ki of Twi. As
you are about to die, that does not matter; but should you by any
chance be permitted to live, you must never breathe a word of what you
are about to see, under penalty of a sure and horrible death."
The prisoners made no reply to this speech, and, after the two Ki-Ki had
given them another mild look from their gentle blue eyes, these officials
clapped their twin hands together and the doors of gold flew open.
A perfect silence greeted them, during which the double Ki and the
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: pleasure, that graceful old English fashion of saluting every lady
on the cheek at meeting, which (like the old Dutch fashion of
asking young ladies out to feasts without their mothers) used to
give such cause of brutal calumny and scandal to the coarse minds
of Romish visitors from the Continent; and he had seen, too, fuming
with jealous rage, more than one Bideford burgher, redolent of
onions, profane in that way the velvet cheek of Rose Salterne.
So, one day, he offered his salute in like wise; but be did it when
she was alone; for something within (perhaps a guilty conscience)
whispered that it might be hardly politic to make the proffer in
her father's presence: however, to his astonishment, he received a
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