‘And turning half round they one and all grasped the handles of their spears’ (Chapter VIII, "The Feast, and After!," facing p. 97): additional lithograph by Maurice Greiffenhagen, engraved by Charles H. M. Kerr, in H. Rider Haggard's SHE: A History of Adventure, 3 ½ by 4 ⅞ inches (8.7 cm high by 12.2 cm wide), framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Realised: The Tension Mounts as the Amahagger Call for Peculiar Meat
At last, just as I was beginning to feel as though I were being mesmerised, amove was made. Without the slightest warning, a man from the other side of the circle called out in a loud voice —
“Where is the flesh that we shall eat?”
Thereon everybody in the circle answered in a deep measured tone, and stretching out the right arm towards the fire as he spoke —
“The flesh will come.”
“Is it a goat?” said the same man.
“It is a goat without horns, and more than a goat, and we shall slay it,” they answered with one voice, and turning half round they one and all grasped the handles of their spears with the right hand, and then simultaneously let them go.
“Is it an ox?” said the man again. [Chapter VIII, "The Feast, and After!" 97]
Comment
Although Holly, Haggard's narrator, insists that the Amahagger are not Blacks, but rather have a yellowish cast and non-negroid features, Greiffenhahen here has clearly made Billali's followers Africans, and hostile-looking Africans at that. One cannot judge how Holly and Leo are responding to the menacing chant as the illustrator has placed the European explorers well back and to the right, near the fire.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
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. 1896.
Created 1 June 2025