| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: no connection with graves. The most elaborate grave that I have
ever seen in the group - to be certain - is in the form of a RAISED
BORDER of gravel, usually strewn with broken glass. One, of which
I cannot be sure that it was a grave, for I was told by one that it
was, and by another that it was not - consisted of a mound about
breast high in an excavated taro swamp, on the top of which was a
child's house, or rather MANIAPA - that is to say, shed, or open
house, such as is used in the group for social or political
gatherings - so small that only a child could creep under its
eaves. I have heard of another great tomb on Apemama, which I did
not see; but here again, by all accounts, no sign of a standing
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: in; for by this time the notary had given a hundred thousand francs of
the remaining trust-money to his accomplice. Du Tillet's relations to
Madame Roguin then became such that her interest in him was
transformed into affection and finally into a violent passion. Through
his three sleeping-partners Ferdinand naturally derived a profit; but
not content with that profit, he had the audacity, when gambling at
the Bourse in their name, to make an agreement with a pretended
adversary, a man of straw, from whom he received back for himself
certain sums which he had charged as losses to his clients. As soon as
he had gained fifty thousand francs he was sure of fortune. He had the
eye of an eagle to discern the phases through which France was then
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
