The Jumbies

This chapter shifts to the jumbie’s perspective as she watches Corinne and her friends in the river from her hiding place in the bushes. While she watches them, the jumbie reflects on her sister’s interest in humans and begins to understand her fascination with them. In a brief aside, the narrator also relates how the jumbie had been watching Corinne and her father at home as well, in hopes of understanding how these humans enticed her sister to leave her own kind.

While the jumbie is reflecting, the children playing in the river call to mind another memory: They remind her of men who traveled by ship to the island long ago. She had swum out to greet the men in their ships, but they attacked her when she tried to climb one of the ships’ hulls. She fought back by pulling all the men under the water and drowning them. With her eyes on the children in the river, she eats a few nearby lizards so she can shape-shift. She tries to decide which child she will pull under the water first.

The jumbie turns transparent and approaches the river. She spots the white witch on a far shore, and invisibly slips into the river with the children.