| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: accordingly, the man tells him that the operation cannot be
performed rightly unless he is first tightly bound with his
back fastened to a bench. While he is thus pinioned he asks
the man's name. The reply is Issi (`himself'). When the lead
is melted, the Devil opens his eyes wide to receive the deadly
stream. As soon as he is blinded, he starts up in agony,
bearing away the bench to which he had been bound; and when
some workpeople in the fields ask him who had thus treated
him, his answer is, 'Issi teggi' (`Self did it'). With a laugh
they bid him lie on the bed which he has made: 'selbst
gethan, selbst habe.' The Devil died of his new eyes, and was
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: Old Men (as they were called) have a right to sit with the king in
the Speak House and debate: and the king's chief superiority is a
form of closure - 'The Speaking is over.' After the long monocracy
of Nakaeia and the changes of Nanteitei, the Old Men were doubtless
grown impatient of obscurity, and they were beyond question jealous
of the influence of Maka. Calumny, or rather caricature, was
called in use; a spoken cartoon ran round society; Maka was
reported to have said in church that the king was the first man in
the island and himself the second; and, stung by the supposed
affront, the chiefs broke into rebellion and armed gatherings. In
the space of one forenoon the throne of Nakaeia was humbled in the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: object of her homage; and as, had he been in London, she should,
with his habits, have been sure to see him often, she was now about
to learn what other spot his presence might just then happen to
sanctify. For she thought of them, the other spots, as
ecstatically conscious of it, expressively happy in it.
But, gracious, how handsome was her ladyship, and what an added
price it gave him that the air of intimacy he threw out should have
flowed originally from such a source! The girl looked straight
through the cage at the eyes and lips that must so often have been
so near as own--looked at them with a strange passion that for an
instant had the result of filling out some of the gaps, supplying
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