| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: indeed, their opposition was continuous. There will always be
opposition in Samoa when taxes are imposed; and the deportation of
Malietoa stuck in men's throats. Tuiatua Mataafa refused to act
under the new government from the beginning, and Tamasese usurped
his place and title. As early as February, I find him signing
himself "Tuiaana TUIATUA Tamasese," the first step on a dangerous
path. Asi, like Mataafa, disclaimed his chiefship and declared
himself a private person; but he was more rudely dealt with.
German sailors surrounded his house in the night, burst in, and
dragged the women out of the mosquito nets - an offence against
Samoan manners. No Asi was to be found; but at last they were
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: with careful subtlety to this end.
Conversation Galante
I observe: "Our sentimental friend the moon
Or possibly (fantastic, I confess)
It may be Prester John’s balloon
Or an old battered lantern hung aloft
To light poor travellers to their distress."
She then: "How you digress!"
And I then: "Some one frames upon the keys
That exquisite nocturne, with which we explain
The night and moonshine; music which we seize
Prufrock/Other Observations |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: startling kind. When a man knows who dances the Halli-Hukk, and
how, and when, and where, he knows something to be proud of. He
has gone deeper than the skin. But Strickland was not proud,
though he had helped once, at Jagadhri, at the Painting of the
Death Bull, which no Englishman must even look upon; had mastered
the thieves'-patter of the changars; had taken a Eusufzai horse-
thief alone near Attock; and had stood under the mimbar-board of a
Border mosque and conducted service in the manner of a Sunni
Mollah.
His crowning achievement was spending eleven days as a faquir in
the gardens of Baba Atal at Amritsar, and there picking up the
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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 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: if you could get me there in time, and will gladly pay you an extra fare."
"I'll do my very best," said Jerry heartily, "if you think you are
well enough, sir," for he looked dreadfully white and ill.
"I must go," he said earnestly, "please to open the door,
and let us lose no time."
The next minute Jerry was on the box; with a cheery chirrup to me,
and a twitch of the rein that I well understood.
"Now then, Jack, my boy," said he, "spin along, we'll show them
how we can get over the ground, if we only know why."
It is always difficult to drive fast in the city in the middle of the day,
when the streets are full of traffic, but we did what could be done;
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