midnight
He paced dramatically back and forward for a minute in a preliminary sort of way , like one who pushes his shallop from the shore , gently pressing the huge belly of the thing with his elbow as if to prompt it for the ensuing fray . The thing emitted one or two sample sounds , not odious particularly , but infantile and grimly prophetic , like the initial squeaks of some windful babe awaking from its sleep . Then the thing seemed to feel its strength , to recognize its dark enfranchisement , and broke into such a blasphemy of sound as hath not been heard since the angels alighted where they fell . I have heard the deep roar of the ocean , and have listened to the screech of the typhoon through befiddled sails ; I have shuddered at the savage yell of the hyena , and have grown cold , even in the tropics , before the tooting of the wounded elephant ; I have heard the eagle rend the firmament and the midnight fog-horn ring the changes on eternity -- join them all together , and they will be still but as a village choir compared to the infinite and full-orbed bray of the highland bagpipes . After the first shock of sky-quake had subsided , Donald turned and looked at me with a rapt and heavenly smile , the thing emitting sundry noises all the while , like fragments from a crash of sound , comparatively mild , as a stream which has just run Niagara . I stood , dripping with noise , fearful lest the tide might rush in again , and looking about for my hat , if haply it might have been cast up upon the beach . `` Wasna that a graun ' ane ? ''