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I Swung To and Fro
Maurice Greiffenhagen
1888
Lithograph
12.6 cm high by 8 cm wide (5 by 3 ¼ inches), facing page 313, framed
Final illustration for H. Rider Haggard's SHE: A History of Adventure in the Longman's British edition (1888).
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham
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Next instant I felt Leo seize me by the right wrist with both hands. By lying flat on the point of rock he could just reach me.
“You must let go and swing yourself clear,” he said in a calm and collected voice, “and then I will try and pull you up, or we will both go together. Are you ready?”
By way of answer I let go, first with my left hand and then with the right, and, as a consequence, swayed out clear of the overshadowing rock, my weight hanging upon Leo’s arms. It was a dreadful moment. He was a very powerful man, I knew, but would his strength be equal to lifting me up till I could get a hold on the top of the spur, when owing to his position he had so little purchase?
For a few seconds I swung to and fro, while he gathered himself for the effort, and then I heard his sinews cracking above me, and felt myself lifted up as though I were a little child, till I got my left arm round the rock, and my chest was resting on it. The rest was easy; in two or three more seconds I was up, and we were lying panting side by side, trembling like leaves, and with the cold perspiration of terror pouring from our skins.
And then, as before, the light went out like a lamp. [Chapter XXVII, "We Leap," pp. 308-309]
Both concluding illustrations (E.K. Johnson's as well as Greiffenhagen's) realise the same moment. Having lost the board with which they initially traversed the gulf, Leo and Holly will have to leap across to grab the spur of rock. But Holly, two decade older than his lithe companion, finds this no easy task, even after taking a run at it. Fortunately, Leo has no trouble in making the leap, and, as both pictures suggest, comes to Holly's rescue. Further complications beset their escaping from the country of the Amahagger, not the least of these being the prospect of being hot-potted since they will no longer have Ayesha to protect them.
Of course, Greiffenghahen would have had amply opportunity to study Johnson's final serial illustration before composing his own. Although the lithographic plate lacks the sharpness of the composite woodblock engraving, it is a better complement to the thrilling episode in Chapter XXVII, "We Leap," in that it shows the yawning chasm of the gulf, and therefore engenders greater suspense than the shaft of light in the serial's version of the same hair's-breadth escape from the volcanic caverns.
Brantlinger, Patrick. Introduction. She: A History of Adventure. By H. Rider Haggard. London: Penguin, 2004. vii-xxviii.
Ellis, P. B. H. Rider Haggard: A Voice from the Infinite. London: Routledge, 1978.
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 16 May 2025