| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: garden. Shrillings of crickets and bell-insects (3) made a musical tumult;
and the sound of the neighboring cascade deepened with the night. Kwairyo
felt thirsty as he listened to the noise of the water; and, remembering the
bamboo aqueduct at the rear of the house, he thought that he could go there
and get a drink without disturbing the sleeping household. Very gently he
pushed apart the sliding-screens that separated his room from the main
apartment; and he saw, by the light of the lantern, five recumbent bodies
-- without heads!
For one instant he stood bewildered,-- imagining a crime. But in another
moment he perceived that there was no blood, and that the headless necks
did not look as if they had been cut. Then he thought to himself:-- "Either
Kwaidan |
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 The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: and grimy. I hated to tell him what I knew he was waiting to hear,
but there was no use wading in by inches. I ducked and got it over.
"The notes are gone, Rich," I said, as quietly as I could. In
spite of himself his face fell.
"I - of course I expected it," he said. "But - Mrs. Klopton said
over the telephone that you had brought home a grip and I hoped
- well, Lord knows we ought not to complain. You're here, damaged,
but here." He lifted his glass. "Happy days, old man!"
"If you will give me that black bottle and a teaspoon, I'll drink
that in arnica, or whatever the stuff is; Rich, - the notes were
gone before the wreck!"
The Man in Lower Ten |
