| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: would repeat.
"Eee--Yoawa? Is the Time of New Talk any less sweet for that?"
they would reply. So when Mowgli, heavy-hearted, came up through
the well- remembered rocks to the place where he had been
brought into the Council, he found only the Four, Baloo, who was
nearly blind with age, and the heavy, cold-blooded Kaa coiled
around Akela's empty seat.
"Thy trail ends here, then, Manling?" said Kaa, as Mowgli threw
himself down, his face in his hands. "Cry thy cry. We be of one
blood, thou and I--man and snake together."
"Why did I not die under Red Dog?" the boy moaned. "My strength
The Second Jungle Book |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: to be quite unconcerned. He merely held out his sword to the nearest
attendant, who, with a wooden dipper, poured water over the blade from haft
to point, and then carefully wiped the steel several times with sheets of
soft paper... And thus ended the ceremonial part of the incident.
For months thereafter, the retainers and the domestics lived in ceaseless
fear of ghostly visitation. None of them doubted that the promised
vengeance would come; and their constant terror caused them to hear and to
see much that did not exist. They became afraid of the sound of the wind in
the bamboos,-- afraid even of the stirring of shadows in the garden. At
last, after taking counsel together, they decided to petition their master
to have a Segaki-service (2) performed on behalf of the vengeful spirit.
Kwaidan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: to arrange for those odd travels, and special courses at American
and European Universities, which evoked so much comment during
the next few years.
I did not at any time suffer from a lack
of learned contacts, for my case had a mild celebrity among the
psychologists of the period. I was lectured upon as a typical
example of secondary personality - even though I seemed to puzzle
the lecturers now and then with some bizarre symptoms or some
queer trace of carefully veiled mockery.
Of real friendliness,
however, I encountered little. Something in my aspect and speech
Shadow out of Time |
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 The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: With the bright summit of that horn which swells
Due from the pole, round which the first wheel rolls,
T' have rang'd themselves in fashion of two signs
In heav'n, such as Ariadne made,
When death's chill seized her; and that one of them
Did compass in the other's beam; and both
In such sort whirl around, that each should tend
With opposite motion and, conceiving thus,
Of that true constellation, and the dance
Twofold, that circled me, he shall attain
As 't were the shadow; for things there as much
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
