| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: close correspondence in conception with manifest independence
in the management of the details of these stories is striking
enough, but it is a phenomenon with which we become quite
familiar as we proceed in the study of Aryan popular
literature. The legend of the Master Thief is no less
remarkable than that of Punchkin. In the Scandinavian tale the
Thief, wishing to get possession of a farmer's ox, carefully
hangs himself to a tree by the roadside. The farmer, passing
by with his ox, is indeed struck by the sight of the dangling
body, but thinks it none of his business, and does not stop to
interfere. No sooner has he passed than the Thief lets himself
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: desert the narrow valley of the Tarn, I began to cast about for a
place to camp in. This was not easy to find; the terraces were too
narrow, and the ground, where it was unterraced, was usually too
steep for a man to lie upon. I should have slipped all night, and
awakened towards morning with my feet or my head in the river.
After perhaps a mile, I saw, some sixty feet above the road, a
little plateau large enough to hold my sack, and securely parapeted
by the trunk of an aged and enormous chestnut. Thither, with
infinite trouble, I goaded and kicked the reluctant Modestine, and
there I hastened to unload her. There was only room for myself
upon the plateau, and I had to go nearly as high again before I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: sets by her on account of her havin' a bob tail. I don't deem it
advisable to maintain cats just on account of their havin' bob
tails; they're like all other curiosities, good for them that wants
to see 'm twice. This kitten catches mice for both, an' keeps me
respectable as I ain't been for a year. She's a real understandin'
little help, this kitten is. I picked her from among five Miss
Augusta Pernell had over to Burnt Island," said the old woman,
trudging along with the kitten close at her skirts. "Augusta, she
says to me, 'Why, Mis' Blackett, you've took and homeliest;'
and, says I, 'I've got the smartest; I'm satisfied.'"
"I'd trust nobody sooner'n you to pick out a kitten, mother,"
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