Johnny Two Bones

Johnny Two Bones is on a walkabout when Aziraphale finds him — while “attempting to avert the Apocalypse” (280) — in the Australian desert by the “Kookamundi Hills” (264). The Kookamundi Hills are fictional, but the walkabout refers to an actual practice where Australian Aborigines go on a six-month walkabout at the age of thirteen as a rite of passage. In Johnny Two Bones’s case, he has been walking in the Australian outback, not eating or sleeping for several days, in order to get in touch with his ancestors while in a trance-like state. He is “nearly there” when Aziraphale comes into his head, and so mistakes the angel for one of his ancestors, although he wonders at his sounding “like a poofter” (265).

The other characters Aziraphale briefly inhabits before reaching Madame Tracy are Citron Deux-Chevaux and Marvin O. Bagman. Similarly to these two stock characters, “Johnny Two Bones” is probably intended to be a stereotypical Aboriginal name with no particular significance.

Other sources:
“Walkabout.” Wikipedia. Accessed 2 Aug 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkabout>.

Edition referenced in this article: UK Corgi paperback (1991)
Written by Linn