| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: near, he'll fire those quills at us and hurt us
badly."
"Then we will be foolish to get too near,
said Scraps.
"I'm not afraid," declared the Woozy. "The Chiss
is cowardly, I'm sure, and if it ever heard my
awful, terrible, frightful growl, it would be
scared stiff."
"Oh; can you growl?" asked the Shaggy Man.
"That is the only ferocious thing about me,"
asserted the Woozy with evident pride. "My growl
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: of a Bangu is an evil-doer. Many years ago he worked on the Black One
who went before me to send him to destroy Matiwane, my friend, filling
the Black One's ears with false accusations; and thereafter he did
treacherously destroy him and all his tribe save Saduko, his son, and
some of the people and children who escaped. Moreover, of late he has
been working against me, the King, striving to stir up rebellion against
me, because he knows that I hate him for his crimes. Now I, Panda,
unlike those who went before me, am a man of peace who do not wish to
light the fire of civil war in the land, for who knows where such fires
will stop, or whose kraals they will consume? Yet I do wish to see
Bangu punished for his wickedness, and his pride abated. Therefore I
Child of Storm |
| 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: him. He couldn't remember what yesterday had been. He counted
back laboriously and decided that today must be Thursday. Not
that it made any difference.
They had lived in the city almost a year now. But the city had
not digested Ben. He was a leathery morsel that could not be
assimilated. There he stuck in Chicago's crop, contributing
nothing, gaining nothing. A rube in a comic collar ambling
aimlessly about Halsted Street or State downtown. You saw him
conversing hungrily with the gritty and taciturn Swede who was
janitor for the block of red-brick flats. Ben used to follow him
around pathetically, engaging him in the talk of the day. Ben
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 The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "It wouldn't look very well in a hole in the ground, would it?"
she suggested.
"Maybe not; but I'm used to sitting in it and I'd like to take it
with me," he answered. "But here come the ladies and gentlemen of the
court; so please sit beside me and be presented."
21. How the King Changed His Mind
Just then a rabbit band of nearly fifty pieces marched in, playing
upon golden instruments and dressed in neat uniforms. Following the
band came the nobility of Bunnybury, all richly dressed and hopping
along on their rear legs. Both the ladies and the gentlemen wore
white gloves upon their paws, with their rings on the outside of the
The Emerald City of Oz |
