| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: of them.
"He answered, 'You will be killed, Nombe will be killed, the lord
Mauriti your lover will be killed, and your friend Macumazahn
will be killed. Perhaps even I shall be killed and we will talk
the matter over in the land of ghosts.'
"On hearing this I said I would do my best to carry out his
orders, and after making me repeat them once more, he went away.
Later, Nombe dressed me up as you saw me, Mr. Quatermain, put
some glittering powder into my hair and touched me beneath the
eyes with a dark kind of pigment. Also she gave me the little
spear and made me practise standing quite still with it raised in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: ship that a passenger might be expected to frequent.
"And are you sure, Miss Strong, that you saw a body fall
overboard last night?" he asked.
"There is not the slightest doubt about that," she answered.
"I cannot say that it was a human body--there was no outcry.
It might have been only what I thought it was--a bundle of refuse.
But if Mr. Caldwell is not found on board I shall always be
positive that it was he whom I saw fall past my port."
The captain ordered an immediate and thorough search
of the entire ship from stem to stern--no nook or cranny was
to be overlooked. Miss Strong remained in his cabin, waiting
The Return of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: AND BIRCHES. Then he will think to himsel', THAT IS NOT SO VERY
RIFE HEREABOUT; and then he will come and give us a look up in
Corrynakiegh. And if he does not, David, the devil may fly away
with him, for what I care; for he will no be worth the salt to
his porridge."
"Eh, man," said I, drolling with him a little, "you're very
ingenious! But would it not be simpler for you to write him a few
words in black and white?"
"And that is an excellent observe, Mr. Balfour of Shaws," says
Alan, drolling with me; "and it would certainly be much simpler
for me to write to him, but it would be a sore job for John Breck
Kidnapped |
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 Adieu by Honore de Balzac: have put forth to save himself.
Presently he reached a slight declivity at the foot of which, in a
spot sheltered from the enemy's balls, he had stationed the carriage,
containing a young woman, the companion of his childhood, the being
most dear to him on earth. At a few steps distant from the vehicle he
now found a company of some thirty stragglers collected around an
immense fire, which they were feeding with planks, caisson covers,
wheels, and broken carriages. These soldiers were, no doubt, the last
comers of that crowd who, from the base of the hill of Studzianka to
the fatal river, formed an ocean of heads intermingled with fires and
huts,--a living sea, swayed by motions that were almost imperceptible,
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