They replied they did not know.

In the middle of the night, they said, men had crept in, who seized, bound and gagged him, then dragged him away.

As there was nothing to be said or done, we returned to breakfast filled with horrid fears.
Nothing happened that day except that some priests arrived, lifted the earthenware pot, examined their departed colleague, who by now had become an unencouraging spectacle, removed old dishes of food, arranged more about him, and went off.

Also the clouds grew thicker and thicker, and the air more and more chilly, till, had we been in any northern latitude, I should have said that snow was pending.

From our perch on the roof-top I observed the population of Simba Town discussing the weather with ever-increasing eagerness; also that the people who were going out to work in the fields wore mats over their shoulders.
Once more darkness came, and this night, notwithstanding the cold, we spent wrapped in rugs, on the roof of the house.