| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: the tapu-post has gained his cause, since no one can remove or
touch it but himself.
The RIDI was the badge not of the woman but the wife, the mark not
of her sex but of her station. It was the collar on the slave's
neck, the brand on merchandise. The adulterous woman seems to have
been spared; were the husband offended, it would be a poor
consolation to send his draught cattle to the shambles. Karaiti,
to this day, calls his eight wives 'his horses,' some trader having
explained to him the employment of these animals on farms; and
Nanteitei hired out his wives to do mason-work. Husbands, at least
when of high rank, had the power of life and death; even whites
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: That for non occupacioun
Which he can take on other side,
He mai noght flitt his herte aside
Fro that his wif him hadde enformed;
Wherof he hath himself conformed
With al the wille of his corage
To schape and take the viage
Homward, what time that he mai:
So that him thenketh of a day 220
A thousand yer, til he mai se
The visage of Penolope,
Confessio Amantis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: merchants of precious stones, of cloths of gold and of other
things, for to know the manner of every country amongst Christian
men. And then he let clepe in all the lords that he made void
first out of his chamber, and there he shewed me four that were
great lords in the country, that told me of my country and of many
other Christian countries, as well as they had been of the same
country; and they spake French right well, and the soldan also;
whereof I had great marvel.
Alas! that it is great slander to our faith and to our law, when
folk that be without law shall reprove us and undernim us of our
sins, and they that should be converted to Christ and to the law of
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