noon
Long into the night the feasting was kept up , and as the fires languished fresh fuel was thrown on until they were blazing and crackling more cheerily than ever . The flames caused the forms of the savages to stand out in bold relief against the dark background of the surrounding gloom , and lighting up their faces displayed in all its fantastic repulsiveness , the war paint with which their bodies were bedaubed . Early the next morning the march was resumed . Towards noon the heat became so intense as to be hardly endurable , still we pushed forward with unvarying speed . After journeying in a southerly direction for a few hours we defiled into the bed of a river and followed its course for several hundred yards , when , striking a new trail , our course was laid in a westerly direction . The character of the country underwent a complete change ; instead of the sandy desert , we were now passing over a prairie clothed with verdure . At intervals we would enter dense thickets of chaparral , and then emerge into glades , that were veritable flower gardens .