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I saw the fire run up her form
Maurice Greiffenhagen
1888
Lithograph
14 cm high by 9.2 cm wide (5 ½ by 3 ⅝ inches), facing p. 296 in Chapter XXVI, “What We Saw,” framed
Sixteenth regular illustration for H. Rider Haggard's SHE: A History of Adventure, facing page 296 in the Longman's British edition (1888).
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham
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On came the crashing, rolling noise, and the sound of it was as the sound of a forest being swept flat by a mighty wind, and then tossed up like so much grass, and thundered down a mountain-side. Nearer and nearer it came; now flashes of light, forerunners of the revolving pillar of flame, were passing like arrows through the rosy air; and now the edge of the pillar itself appeared. Ayesha turned towards it, and stretched out her arms to greet it. On it came very slowly, and lapped her round with flame. I saw the fire run up her form. I saw her lift it with both hands as though it were water, and pour it over her head. I even saw her open her mouth and draw it down into her lungs, and a dread and wonderful sight it was.
Then she paused, and stretched out her arms, and stood there quite still, with a heavenly smile upon her face, as though she were the very Spirit of the Flame.
The mysterious fire played up and down her dark and rolling locks, twining and twisting itself through and around them like threads of golden lace; it gleamed upon her ivory breast and shoulder, from which the hair had slipped aside; it slid along her pillared throat and delicate features, and seemed to find a home in the glorious eyes that shone and shone, more brightly even than the spiritual essence.
Oh, how beautiful she looked there in the flame! No angel out of heaven could have worn a greater loveliness. Even now my heart faints before the recollection of it, as she stood and smiled at our awed faces, and I would give half my remaining time upon this earth to see her once like that again.
But suddenly — more suddenly than I can describe — a kind of change came over her face, a change which I could not define or explain, but none the less a change. The smile vanished, and in its place there came a dry, hard look; the rounded face seemed to grow pinched, as though some great anxiety were leaving its impress upon it. The glorious eyes, too, lost their light, and, as I thought, the form its perfect shape and erectness. [Chapter XXVI, “What We Saw,” pp. 294-295]
Having obtained Leo's pardon for having slain Ustane out of jealousy, Ayesha expects that she will transform Holly and Leo in the Flame of Life as she herself was transformed after murdering Kallikrates in this very spot two thousand years earlier. However, what Holly and this penultimate illustration lead readers to expect — Leo's physical transformation and Ayesha's renewal in the Flame of Life — does not occur. The quasi-pornographic illustration of the naked beauty ill prepares us for the sequel over the page.
In a stunning reversal of our expectations (to say nothing of Leo's, Holly's, and Ayesha's) the fire from the Fountain and Heart of Life does not rejuvenate or transfigure her into a superior creature. Rather, it reverses the Darwinian process, reducing the once-beautiful and eternally radiant young (or youthful-looking) woman into a shrivelled monkey: "near masses of her own dark hair, no larger than a big ape, and hideous — ah, too hideous for words! (297).
Brantlinger, Patrick. Introduction. She: A History of Adventure. By H. Rider Haggard. London: Penguin, 2004. vii-xxviii.
Haggard, H. Rider. "SHE:" A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. The Graphic Magazine, Vols. XXXIV and XXXV. 2 October 1886 to 8 January 1887.
Haggard. H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. New York: Harper & Bros., 1887.
Haggard, H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888, rpt. 1927.
Haggard, H. Rider. She. Project Gutenberg EBook #3155 produced by John Bickers; Dagny; William Kyngesburye; David Kyngesburye; David Widger. 2016. Web. Accessed 9 May 2025.
Created 19 May 2025