A most unholy river of blood, that smote recreants with terror, ran across the battlefield. With the two armies for its banks, the chariots for its intervening sands and their wheels for its whirlpools, it was a frightful flood indeed. The foot-soldiers, and even so elephants, horses, donkeys and other mounts of all kinds, more than one could count, (that floated on the river) represented the various aquatic creatures; the arrows, lances and iron clubs (swept by it) stood for its serpents: the bows borne along the current represented its waves and the shields stood for its many tortoises.