The Giant Cloud-Swallower

Deep down in canyons of the Southwest, especially where they are joined by other canyons, the traveller may see standing forth from or hugging the angles of the cliffs, great towering needles of stone -- weird, rugged, fantastic, oftentimes single, as often -- like gigantic wind-stripped trees with lesser trees standing beside them -- double or treble. Seen suddenly at a turn in the canyon these giant stones startle the gazer with their monstrous and human proportions, like giants, indeed, at bay against the sheer rock walls, protecting their young, who appear anon to crouch at the knees of their fathers or cling to their sides.

Few white men behold these statuesque stones in the moonlight, or in the gray light and white mists of the morning. At midday they seem dead or asleep while standing; but when the moon is shining above them and the wanderer below looks up to them, lo! the moon stands still and these mighty crags start forth, advancing noiselessly. His back is frozen, and even in the yielding sand his feet are held fast by terror -- a delicious, ghostly terror, withal! Still he gazes fascinated, and as the shadow of the moonlight falls toward him over the topmost crest, lo, again! its crown is illumined and circled as if by a halo of snow-light, and back and forth from this luminous fillet over that high stony brow, black hair seems to tumble and gather.