noon
Three spirits presided over this place ; the spirit of morning , of noon , and of evening . In towns and cities , even in the open country of civilized lands , these three are clad in language and bound in chains of convention , reduced to slaves whose task is to call men to rise , to eat , or sleep . But here , in this vast place , one saw them naked -- naked and free as when they caught the world 's first day , like a new-minted coin struck from darkness , and spun it behind them into night . Under the presidency of these three spirits the land was ever changing ; the country of the morning was not the country of the noon , nor was the country of the noon the country of the evening . The morning was loud . I can express it in no other terms . Dawn came like a blast of trumpets , driving the flocks of the red flamingoes before it , tremendous , and shattering the night of stars at the first fanfare .