ACROSS THE NAVAJO DESERT 33 



land at their bases. The ground was burned 

 out or washed bare. In one place a Kttle stream 

 trickled forth at the bottom of a ravine, but 

 even here no grass grew — only little clusters of 

 a coarse weed with flaring white flowers that 

 looked as if it throve on poisoned soil. In the 

 still heat '^we saw the silences move by and 

 beckon." The cliffs were channelled into myriad 

 forms — battlements, spires, pillars, buttressed 

 towers, flying arches ; they looked like the ruined 

 castles and temples of the monstrous devil- 

 deities of some vanished race. All were ruins — 

 ruins vaster than those of any structures ever 

 reared by the hands of men — as if some magic 

 city, built by warlocks and sorcerers, had been 

 wrecked by the wrath of the elder gods. Evil 

 dwelt in the silent places; from battlement to 

 lonely battlement fiends' voices might have 

 raved; in the utter desolation of each empty 

 valley the squat blind tower might have stood, 

 and giants lolled at length to see the death of a 

 soul at bay. 



As the afternoon wore on, storm boded in 

 the south. The day grew sombre; to the desola- 

 tion of the blinding light succeeded the desola- 

 tion of utter gloom. The echoes of the thunder 

 rolled among the crags, and lightning jagged 

 the darkness. The heavens burst, and the 



