| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: still be found in sufficient numbers to tempt an ardent huntsman.
On his departure the ape-man, with Abdul, wandered again
into the streets of Sidi Aissa, where he was soon attracted
by the wild din of sound coming from the open doorway of
one of the numerous CAFES MAURES. It was after eight, and
the dancing was in full swing as Tarzan entered. The room
was filled to repletion with Arabs. All were smoking, and
drinking their thick, hot coffee.
Tarzan and Abdul found seats near the center of the room,
though the terrific noise produced by the musicians upon
their Arab drums and pipes would have rendered a seat
The Return of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: and so delicately formed that she seemed to bend under Bordenave's
rude weight. Yet she was smilingly submissive withal. He postured
there for some moments, for he felt that together they formed a
tableau.
"One can't help liking ye, eh?" he continued. "Zounds, I was afraid
I should get bored, and I said to myself, 'Here goes.'"
But he interrupted himself with an oath.
"Oh, damn!"
Simonne had taken a step too quickly forward, and his foot had just
felt his full weight. He gave her a rough push, but she, still
smiling away and ducking her pretty head as some animal might that
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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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: "Who is the wretch who dares to doubt your word?" he said,
overhearing, in spite of his distance, his wife's last words.
The door of the dressing-room was hidden by the royal bed. This room
was afterwards called "the old cabinet," to distinguish it from the
fine cabinet of pictures which Henri III. constructed at the farther
end of the same suite of rooms, next to the hall of the States-
general. It was in the old cabinet that Henri III. hid the murderers
when he sent for the Duc de Guise, while he himself remained hidden in
the new cabinet during the murder, only emerging in time to see the
overbearing subject for whom there were no longer prisons, tribunals,
judges, nor even laws, draw his last breath. Were it not for these
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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 Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectly
silent, but when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to his
own case, he coloured up, and when he learnt that what had passed
between him and Sorais had been overseen he was evidently much
distressed. And now, when at last he spoke, it was in a tone
of humility quite foreign to him.
'I must say,' he said, with a bitter little laugh, 'that I scarcely
thought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu; but
it just shows what we can come to. I wonder if you fellows can
understand how humiliated I feel, and the bitterest part of it
is that I deserve it all. Of course I should have handed Sorais
Allan Quatermain |
