So true was this, that the business of eating and drinking was better done in the dark than in the light of day.
Concerning the cockroaches, there was an extraordinary phenomenon, for which none of us could ever account.
Every night they had a jubilee.

The first symptom was an unusual clustering and humming among the swarms lining the beams overhead, and the inside of the sleeping-places.

This was succeeded by a prodigious coming and going on the part of those living out of sight Presently they all came forth; the larger sort racing over the chests and planks; winged monsters darting to and fro in the air; and the small fry buzzing in heaps almost in a state of fusion.
On the first alarm, all who were able darted on deck; while some of the sick who were too feeble, lay perfectly quiet--the distracted vermin running over them at pleasure.

The performance lasted some ten minutes, during which no hive ever hummed louder.

Often it was lamented by us that the time of the visitation could never be predicted; it was liable to come upon us at any hour of the night, and what a relief it was, when it happened to fall in the early part of the evening.
Nor must I forget the rats: they did not forget me.