ACROSS THE NAVAJO DESERT 33 



land at their bases. The ground was burned 

 out or washed bare. In one place a little 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 &quot;we saw the silences move by and 

 beckon.&quot; 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 



