“As we were returning Billali met us.” (headpiece): composite woodblock illustration by Edward Killingworth Johnson, R. W. S., in H. Rider Haggard's "SHE:" A History of Adventure, 7 ⅛ by 9 inches (17.9 cm high by 22.9 cm wide). The Graphic (11 December 1886): Volume XXXIV, p. 633, framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: A Summons to Immortality
Maurice Greiffenhagen's first-volume illustration of the scene in Chapter XXII: “Strike, and strike home!” (1888).
After breakfast we went for another walk, and watched some of the Amahagger sowing a plot of ground with the grain from which they make their beer. This they did in scriptural fashion — a man with a bag made of goat’s hide fastened round his waist walking up and down the plot and scattering the seed as he went. It was a positive relief to see one of these dreadful people do anything so homely and pleasant as sow a field, perhaps because it seemed to link them, as it were, with the rest of humanity.
As we were returning Billali met us, and informed us that it was She’s pleasure that we should wait upon her, and accordingly we entered her presence, not without trepidation, for Ayesha was certainly an exception to the rule. Familiarity with her might and did breed passion and wonder and horror, but it certainly did not breed contempt.
We were as usual shown in by the mutes, and after these had retired Ayesha unveiled, and once more bade Leo embrace her, which, notwithstanding his heart-searchings of the previous night, he did with more alacrity and fervour than in strictness courtesy required. [Chapter XXII, "Job Has a Presentiment," 635]
Commentary: Ayesha Proposes A Pair of Unlikely Journeys — to Kôr, and then England.
The rather prosaic outdoor scene hardly prepares readers for the extraordinary offer that Ayesha is about to make Leo and his uncle. She intends to take them to the "place of Life" in the ruined city of Kôr. Her intention seems to be to make Leo as immortal or at least as physically transformed as herself, and therefore able to enjoy a physical relationship with her after a miraculous transsubstantiation: "then, Kallikrates [Leo], thou mayest call me wife, and I will call thee husband" (249 in volume). And thus suitably matched, she adds, they can travel back to England, where she will somehow wrest power from Queen Victoria and rule the British Empire.
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
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.
"Johnson, Edward Killingworth." Haynes Fine Art. Web. Accessed 8 April 2025. https://www.haynesfineart.com/artists/edward-killingworth-johnson-uk
Created 21 April 2025