"Why did we ever bring them here?
Oh! Leonard, is there no escape from this land of demons ?" "I hope so," he answered; then added, "Come, Juanna, do not give way.
Things look so bad that they are sure to mend." "There is need of it," she sobbed.
All that evening and night they watched, hourly expecting to be attacked and dragged forth to sacrifice, but no attack was made.

Indeed, on the morrow they learnt from Olfan that the people had dispersed after sacrificing about a score of human beings, and that quiet reigned in the city.
Now began the most dreadful of their trials, and the longest, for it endured five whole weeks.

As has been said, the climate of these vast upland plains, backed by snow-clad mountains, that are the dwelling-place of the People of the Mist, is cold during the winter months to the verge of severity.

But at a certain period of a year, almost invariably within a day or two of the celebration of the feast of Jal, the mists and frost vanish and warm weather sets in with bright sunshine.
This is the season of the sowing of crops, and upon the climatic conditions of the few following weeks depends the yield of the harvest.
Should the spring be delayed even a week or two, a short crop would certainly result, but if its arrival is postponed for a month, it means something like a famine during the following winter.

For although this people dwell on high lands they cultivate the same sorts of grain which are common in these latitudes, namely maize and sundry varieties of Kaffir corn, having no knowledge of wheat and the other hardy cereals.
Therefore, it is all important to them that the corn should have a fair start, for if the autumn frosts catch it before it is fit to harvest the great proportion of the crop turns black and is rendered useless.
These agricultural details had no small bearing upon the fate of our adventurers.