"Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe, And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath; 475 Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies, In red arcades the billowy plain surround, And stalking turrets dance upon the ground. --Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend, 480 To Demon-Gods their knees unhallow'd bend, Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square, And now they front, and now they fly the war, Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries, Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot eyes. 485 --GNOMES! o'er the waste YOU led your myriad powers, Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers!-- Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge; Wave over wave the driving desert swims, 490 Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs; Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush, Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush,-- Wheeling in air the winged islands fall, And one great earthy Ocean covers all!-- 495 Then ceased the storm,--NIGHT bow'd his Ethiop brow To earth, and listen'd to the groans below,-- Grim HORROR shook,--awhile the living hill Heaved with convulsive throes,--and all was still! [_And stalking turrets_. l. 478. "At one o'clock we alighted among some acacia trees at Waadi el Halboub, having gone twenty-one miles. We were here at once surprised and terrified by a sight surely one of the most magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W. to N.W. of us, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at different distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others stalking on with a majestic slowness; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quantities of sand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat so as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often separated from the bodies; and these, once disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken in the middle, as if struck with large cannon-shot. About noon they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us, the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged along side of us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at S.E. leaving an impression upon my mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of no use to carry us out of this danger; and the full persuasion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I stood.