In Lord of the Flies, what is a a four letter word begining with e and ending with i, that "created the problems on the island"?

The only word that I can even think of that starts with e, ends with i, and means anything appropriate is "ennui."  Of course, that has five letters, which is a big problem unless you mistyped the number of letters, which is what I'm hoping.

The word ennui means something along the lines of dissatisfaction that comes from being bored.  It means that you don't have enough to do and that you find life unsatisfying.  I think you could argue that the boys' ennui creates at least some of the problems since they are stuck on the island without much to do and are surely somewhat dissatisfied with the way things are...