Swallows and Amazons

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

There is no wind the next day. The Walkers decide to visit the charcoal burners and pick up some firewood on the way back. After rowing over to the hillside, they climb uphill to find the charcoal burners.

They come upon a circle of black burned earth, which Titty declares to be the place where “the savages have had a corroboree” (136)—an Australian Aboriginal dance ceremony. She speculates that the men were cooking their prisoners on a fire and dancing around them.

The charcoal burners are nearby. An older man, Billy, comes out of a tent made from poles to welcome them, and Titty decides that the tent is a “Red Indian wigwam” (137). The children peek at the inside, and then the man takes out a box and brings it to his son, “Young Billy.” The box turns out to hold Billy’s pet adder snake, which they keep for luck despite its poisonous venom.

Young Billy tells Susan how to keep her campfire burning continuously by covering it with some earth at night. After he learns that they are the children camping on the island and that they are friends with the Blackett girls, he asks them to pass a message on to

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