| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: deities which send rain or sunshine, health or sickness,
plenty or famine, arid to which their living offspring appeal
for guidance amid the vicissitudes of life.[179] The theory of
embodiment, already alluded to, shows how thoroughly the
demons which cause disease are identified with human and
object souls. In Australasia it is a dead man's ghost which
creeps up into the liver of the impious wretch who has
ventured to pronounce his name; while conversely in the
well-known European theory of demoniacal possession, it is a
fairy from elf-land, or an imp from hell, which has entered
the body of the sufferer. In the close kinship, moreover,
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: After they had eaten their supper and ended with a dessert of all
kinds of fruits and of sweetmeats, the door opened and there came
a beautiful young serving-lad, carrying a silver tray, upon which
was something wrapped in a napkin. He kneeled before Jacob Stuck
and held the tray, and from the napkin Jacob Stuck took a
necklace of diamonds, each stone as big as a pigeon's egg.
"This is to remind you of me," said Jacob Stuck, "when you have
gone home again." And as he spoke he hung it around the
princess's neck.
Just then the clock struck twelve.
Hardly had the last stroke sounded when every light was snuffed
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: of the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everything
went very well: the young ladies were certainly very clever,
and they only smiled when we blundered. I never saw Good so
attentive to his books before, and even Sir Henry appeared to
tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest. 'Ah,' thought I, 'will
it always be thus?'
Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed with questions about our native country, what the ladies were
like there, etc., all of which we answered as best as we could
in Zu-Vendi, and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her loveliness
was to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to which
she replied with a little toss of the head, that she was a plain
Allan Quatermain |
