But it was uncomfortable in the house when the mistress took no notice of anything, and did not even provide the most necessary things, not even drinking-water.

Therefore Zashue, as well as Okoya, preferred to go out of doors, there to await the termination of the disagreeable period of mourning at the end of which they confidently expected Say to return to her normal condition.
After he had separated from Mitsha, Okoya sauntered, without really knowing whither, up the gorge and down the northern side of the cultivated plots.

He gradually neared the cliffs, and found himself beyond the dwellings of the Water clan, and therefore beyond the uppermost caves that were inhabited.

The gorge, narrow and covered mostly with underbrush and pines, afforded to his sight but a single conspicuous object, and toward this he turned at once.
To his right lay some caves that had been long ago forsaken, and whose front wall had partly crumbled.

Below the short slope leading up to them are the traces of an old round estufa.