| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: a motion of the head; bowing almost to the ground, and stamping
with his foot whenever a fresh couple were to start.
Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as upon his
vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about him was idle; and to
have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion, and clattering
about the room, you would have thought St. Vitus himself, that
blessed patron of the dance, was figuring before you in person.
He was the admiration of all the negroes; who, having gathered,
of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the neighborhood, stood
forming a pyramid of shining black faces at every door and
window; gazing with delight at the scene; rolling their white
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: fell in abeyance, and he was dubbed instead by the expressive
byword, Taipi-Kikino - HIGHWATER MAN-OF-NO-ACCOUNT - or, Englishing
more boldly, BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK - a witty and a wicked cut. A
nickname in Polynesia destroys almost the memory of the original
name. To-day, if we were Polynesians, Gladstone would be no more
heard of. We should speak of and address our Nestor as the Grand
Old Man, and it is so that himself would sign his correspondence.
Not the prevalence, then, but the significancy of the nickname is
to be noted here. The new authority began with small prestige.
Taipi has now been some time in office; from all I saw he seemed a
person very fit. He is not the least unpopular, and yet his power
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: From then on for
another half hour Lake kept up a running fire of comment, and
expressed his intention of climbing some of the peaks on foot.
I replied that I would join him as soon as he could send a plane,
and that Pabodie and I would work out the best gasoline plan -
just where and how to concentrate our supply in view of the expedition’s
altered character. Obviously, Lake’s boring operations, as well
as his aeroplane activities, would require a great deal for the
new base which he planned to establish at the foot of the mountains;
and it was possible that the eastward flight might not be made,
after all, this season. In connection with this business I called
At the Mountains of Madness |
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 Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: There was something about this man that Toto
objected to, and when he slowly rose to his foot
they saw what it was. He had but one leg, set just
below the middle of his round, fat body; but it
was a stout leg and had a broad, flat foot at the
bottom of it, on which the man seemed to stand
very well. He had never had but this one leg,
which looked something like a pedestal, and when
Toto ran up and made a grab at the man's ankle he
hopped first one way and then another in a very
active manner, looking so frightened that Scraps
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
