| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: But, friends, your number is many; and pigs must be hunted and found,
And the lads troop to the mountains to bring the feis down,
And around the bowls of the kava cluster the maids of the town.
So, for to-night, sleep here; but king, common, and priest
To-morrow, in order due, shall sit with me in the feast."
Sleepless the live-long night, Hiopa's followers toiled.
The pigs screamed and were slaughtered; the spars of the guest-house oiled,
The leaves spread on the floor. In many a mountain glen
The moon drew shadows of trees on the naked bodies of men
Plucking and bearing fruits; and in all the bounds of the town
Red glowed the cocoanut fires, and were buried and trodden down.
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: hearts. "Poor angels, what will become of you? And when you are twenty
years old, what strict account may you not require of my life and your
own?"
She put the children from her, and leaning her arms upon the
balustrade, stood for a while hiding her face, alone with herself,
fearful of all eyes. When she recovered from the paroxysm, she saw
Louis and Marie kneeling on either side of her, like two angels; they
watched the expression of her face, and smiled lovingly at her.
"If only I could take that smile with me!" she said, drying her eyes.
Then she went into the house and took to the bed, which she would only
leave for her coffin.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: The boy, Eugene, used to like to look at Julia Gold. Her hair
was very black and her face was very white, and her eyebrows met
in a thick dark line. Her face as she bent over her work was
sullen and brooding, but when she lifted her head suddenly, in
conversation, you were startled by a vivid flash of teeth and
eyes and smile. Her voice was deep and low. She made you a
little uncomfortable. Her eyes seemed always to be asking
something. Around the worktable, mornings, she used to relate
the dream she had had the night before. In these dreams she was
always being pursued by a lover. "And then I woke up,
screaming." Neither she nor the sewing girls knew what she was
One Basket |
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 Youth by Joseph Conrad: intending to serve the water out of a spare tank we kept
there.
"The smell down below was as unexpected as it was
frightful. One would have thought hundreds of par-
affin-lamps had been flaring and smoking in that hole
for days. I was glad to get out. The man with me
coughed and said, 'Funny smell, sir.' I answered negli-
gently, 'It's good for the health, they say,' and walked
aft.
"The first thing I did was to put my head down the
square of the midship ventilator. As I lifted the lid a
Youth |
