| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: that Iktomi's flattering tongue had made him foolish.
He turned up his nose at Iktomi, now almost out of sight, as
much as to say: "Oh, no, Ikto; I do not hear your words!"
Soon there came a murmur of voices. The sound of laughter
grew louder and louder. All of a sudden it became hushed. Old
Iktomi led his young Iktomi brood to the place where he had left
the turtle, but it was vacant. Nowhere was there any sign of
Patkasa or the deer. Then the babes did howl!
"Be still!" said father Iktomi to his children. "I know where
Patkasa lives. Follow me. I shall take you to the turtle's
dwelling." He ran along a narrow footpath toward the creek near
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: beneath my doublet and their daggers broke upon it, and in place of
being slain I slew one of them. Twice baffled, de Garcia was not
defeated. Fight and murder had failed, but another and surer means
remained. I know not how, but he had won some clue to the history
of my life, and of how I had broken out from the monastery. It was
left to him, therefore, to denounce me to the Holy Office as a
renegade and an infidel, and this he did one night; it was the
night before the day when we should have taken ship. I was sitting
with your mother and her mother in their house at Seville, when six
cowled men entered and seized me without a word. When I prayed to
know their purpose they gave no other answer than to hold a
 Montezuma's Daughter |