Today's Stichomancy for Ho Chi Minh

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:

visage avec un voile, et mettez des cendres sur votre tete, et allez dans le desert chercher le fils de l'Homme.

SALOME. Qui est-ce, le fils de l'Homme? Est-il aussi beau que toi, Iokanaan?

IOKANAAN. Arriere! Arriere! J'entends dans le palais le battement des ailes de l'ange de la mort.

LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Princesse, je vous supplie de rentrer!

IOKANAAN. Ange du Seigneur Dieu, que fais-tu ici avec ton glaive? Qui cherches-tu dans cet immonde palais? . . . Le jour de celui qui mourra en robe d'argent n'est pas venu

SALOME. Iokanaan.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare:

A dreadful Archer with his bow ybent, Wounded the Lion with a dismal shaft. So he him stroke that it drew forth the blood, And filled his furious heart with fretting ire; But all in vain he threatened teeth and paws, And sparkleth fire from forth his flaming eyes, For the sharp shaft gave him a mortal wound. So valiant Brute, the terror of the world, Whose only looks did scare his enemies, The Archer death brought to his latest end. Oh what may long abide above this ground,

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot:

Who had always been so careful while her mistress lived.

Cousin Nancy

Miss Nancy Ellicot Strode across the hills and broke them Rode across the hills and broke them-- The barren New England hills Riding to hounds Over the cow-pasture.

Miss Nancy Ellicott smoked And danced all the modern dances; And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it,

Prufrock/Other Observations

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 Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

shrouded in darkness and utter quiet prevailed, quite upsetting such a theory. And as he proceeded he passed many another group sitting silently upon other balconies. They paid no attention to him, seeming not even to note his passing. Some leaned with a single elbow upon the rail, their chins resting in their palms; others leaned upon both arms across the balcony, looking down into the street, while several that he saw held musical instruments in their hands, but their fingers moved not upon the strings.

And then Turan came to a point where the avenue turned to the right, to skirt a building that jutted from the inside of the

The Chessmen of Mars