| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: oil, into the stagnant water where they breed. Once a week the oil should
be used, "at the rate of once ounce for every fifteen square feet of
water-surface, and a proportionate quantity for any less surface." ...But
please to consider the conditions in my neighborhood!
I have said that my tormentors come from the Buddhist cemetery. Before
nearly every tomb in that old cemetery there is a water-receptacle, or
cistern, called mizutame. In the majority of cases this mizutame is simply
an oblong cavity chiseled in the broad pedestal supporting the monument;
but before tombs of a costly kind, having no pedestal-tank, a larger
separate tank is placed, cut out of a single block of stone, and decorated
with a family crest, or with symbolic carvings. In front of a tomb of the
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Into the mist of death.
O shades of you that loved him long before
The cruel threads of that black sail were spun,
May loyal arms and ancient welcomings
Receive him once again
Who now no longer moves
Here in this flickering dance of changing days,
Where a battle is lost and won for a withered wreath,
And the black master Death is over all,
To chill with his approach,
To level with his touch,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: you a pair of window-glass spectacles and some red
side-whiskers.'
'I had already canvassed that idea,' replied the old gentleman,
'but feared to awaken remark in my unpretentious lodgings. The
aristocracy, I am well aware--'
'But see here,' interrupted Michael, 'how do you come to have any
money at all? Don't make a stranger of me, Uncle Joseph; I know
all about the trust, and the hash you made of it, and the
assignment you were forced to make to Morris.'
Joseph narrated his dealings with the bank.
'O, but I say, this won't do,' cried the lawyer. 'You've put your
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