noon
A tossing sea of rippling waves of light was presently unfolded , and over it they saw millions of birds , with wings of fire , soaring with bewildering rapidity from horizon to zenith ... This faded ... Monstrous and gorgeous flowers of living rainbow tints burst into bloom -- fields of them momentarily covered the heaven . These the natives regarded with only half accustomed wonder , for they knew there were strange flowers in the land of the dead . As they danced , the colored imageries steadily faded in the growing intensity of the great banded coronas that rose from the north . A light of cold electric fire increasingly blazed over the heavens until a frigid silver day , brighter than any day of sunshine , reached its brief noon upon the earth . Rocking their bodies and singing , the natives dispersed to their respective igloos . Sitting on his sledge by Annadoah , Ootah dimly heard their voices echoing into silence ; he experienced terrible pains again in his limbs and the fever in his head . Everything became dizzy , and with a sick feeling of faintness he crept into Annadoah 's igloo and fell upon her couch .