| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: a man so terrified as this Keola. He swam indeed, but he swam as
puppies swim when they are cast in to drown, and knew not
wherefore. He could but think of the hugeness of the swelling of
the warlock, of that face which was great as a mountain, of those
shoulders that were broad as an isle, and of the seas that beat on
them in vain. He thought, too, of the concertina, and shame took
hold upon him; and of the dead men's bones, and fear shook him.
Of a sudden he was aware of something dark against the stars that
tossed, and a light below, and a brightness of the cloven sea; and
he heard speech of men. He cried out aloud and a voice answered;
and in a twinkling the bows of a ship hung above him on a wave like
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: the labour of ten thousand Indians, who worked at it without cease
for two months. The bearers of these brigantines were escorted by
an army of twenty thousand Tlascalans, and if I could have had my
way that army should have been attacked in the mountain passes. So
thought Guatemoc also, but there were few troops to spare, for the
most of our force had been despatched to threaten a city named
Chalco, that, though its people were of the Aztec blood, had not
been ashamed to desert the Aztec cause. Still I offered to lead
the twenty thousand Otomies whom I commanded against the Tlascalan
convoy, and the matter was debated hotly at a council of war. But
the most of the council were against the risking of an engagement
Montezuma's Daughter |
