Page 10
Music and grey dashed line
The piece of music on this page translates via Messiaen's musical alphabet to give "épées de feu", French for "swords of fire", part of a quote by Messiaen (see Music). There's therefore a grey dashed line linking this to the logo of the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service - a fire brigade with swords as a logo. It is likely here that 'swords of fire' references exploding mines, one of themes of the Hunt - in particular the exploding mines at the 1917 Battle of Messines (see Page 6 and Page 7), which have been described as 'pillars of fire'.
Birds
The birds on this page correspond to letters in a code where the right facing birds represent A to M in the order of Messiaen's 13-piece piano work Catalogue d'Oiseaux; the left facing birds represent N to Z in the reverse order (see the Birds page). This is hinted at by the image on the card: two Alpine choughs facing each other across an ellipsis, which translates as "A ... Z". Translated in this way, the code reads:
- ADDSENDERTOSTAMP
- ADD SENDER TO STAMP
These are instructions to be carried out with the information on the Postcards.
