Today's Stichomancy for Dan Brown

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde:

roi de Cappadoce ment toujours, mais ce n'est pas un vrai roi. C'est un lache. Aussi il me doit de l'argent qu'il ne veut pas payer. Il a meme insulte mes ambassadeurs. Il a dit des choses tres blessantes. Mais Cesar le crucifiera quand il viendra e Rome. Je suis sur que Cesar le crucifiera. Sinon il mourra mange des vers. Le prophete l'a predit. Eh bien! Salome, qu'attendez-vous?

SALOME. J'attends que mes esclaves m'apportent des parfums et les sept voiles et m'otent mes sandales.

[Les esclaves apportent des parfums et les sept voiles et otent les sandales de Salome.]

HERODE. Ah! vous allez danser pieds nus! C'est bien! C'est bien!

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson:

At the great circus on the green; For every kind of beast and man Is marching in that caravan.

As first they move a little slow, But still the faster on they go, And still beside me close I keep Until we reach the town of Sleep.

V Whole Duty of Children

A child should always say what's true And speak when he is spoken to,

A Child's Garden of Verses

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

The pelt of a leopard covered the nakedness of the youth; but the wearing of it had not been dictated by any prompting of modesty. With the rifle shots of the white men showering about him he had reverted to the savagery of the beast that is inherent in each of us, but that flamed more strongly in this boy whose father had been raised a beast of prey. He wore his leopard skin at first in response to a desire to parade a trophy of his prowess, for he had slain the leopard with his knife in a hand-to-hand combat. He saw that the skin was beautiful, which appealed to his barbaric sense of ornamentation, and when it stiffened and later commenced to decompose because of his having no knowledge of how to cure or

The Son of Tarzan

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 Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne:

of this forest of dates and acacias.

Passepartout, not less surprised, rushed out and speedily returned, crying: "Monsieur, no more railway!"

"What do you mean?" asked Sir Francis.

"I mean to say that the train isn't going on."

The general at once stepped out, while Phileas Fogg calmly followed him, and they proceeded together to the conductor.

"Where are we?" asked Sir Francis.

"At the hamlet of Kholby."

"Do we stop here?"

"Certainly. The railway isn't finished."

Around the World in 80 Days