The Jumbies

This chapter returns readers to Dru, trapped in a stinging nettle bush, as a lagahoo approaches. Just as the lagahoo reaches out to bite her, Dru sees the match she dropped in Chapter 37 ignite a small fire that catches the creature’s fur. As the flames spread up the lagahoo’s leg, the lagahoo falls on the nettle bush that entangles Dru, inadvertently freeing her. As she turns to run away from the growing fire (now outside the clearing she had made), the beast, still on fire, reaches for her. The lagahoo pulls Dru to the ground and ignites the ends of her long hair, but she quickly recovers and runs home.

As she approaches her village, Dru sees everyone standing in the road. The narrator notes that her family and neighbors’ faces reflect the “orange glow of the fiery creature” (204) that, she presumes, chases her. The narrator relates that she can smell its burning fur behind her as well. However, when someone from her village dumps a bucket of water over her, Dru suddenly realizes that she was on fire as she ran from the forest. The burning lagahoo did not chase her out; it ignited her hair when it grabbed her.