[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Edward Killingworth Johnson, A. W. S. —> Rider Haggard —> She]
Chapter XXVIII. “Over the Mountain.”
Ornate bannerhead and text
8 January 1887
Fifteenth and final instalment for H. Rider Haggard's "SHE:" A History of Adventure in The Graphic, No. 892, Vol. XXXV, p. 43.
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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.]
The next thing I recollect is a feeling of the most dreadful stiffness, and a sort of vague idea passing through my half-awakened brain that I was a carpet that had just been beaten. I opened my eyes, and the first thing they fell on was the venerable countenance of our old friend Billali, who was seated by the side of the improvised bed upon which I was sleeping, and thoughtfully stroking his long beard. The sight of him at once brought back to my mind a recollection of all that we had recently passed through, which was accentuated by the vision of poor Leo lying opposite to me, his face knocked almost to a jelly, and his beautiful crowd of curls turned from yellow to white, and I shut my eyes again and groaned.
“Thou hast slept long, my Baboon,” said old Billali.
“How long, my father?” I asked.
“A round of the sun and a round of the moon, a day and a night hast thou slept, and the Lion also. See, he sleepeth yet.”
“Blessed is sleep,” I answered, “for it swallows up recollection.” [Final Instalment, 8 January 1887: Chapter XVIII, “Over the Mountain,” 43]
Clearly, since Johnson had not been contracted to provide a fifteenth illustration, the editor of The Graphic had not anticipated that weekly serialisation would run into the first week of 1887. Since this instalment is roughly half the length of the average number, it seems likely that Haggard underestimated the number of column-inches that would be required to wrap up the narrative. Or perhaps the romance writer had thought to send his adventurers abroad again, and then thought better of that notion, and determined instead to terminate the story with Holly's contemplation of the fates of the Egyptian priest Kallikrates and his wife, Amenartas, and saw no need to hint at a sequel.
Most of the story, the narrator reminds us, has taken just three weeks, or just twenty per cent of the duration of the weekly serial: Chapters IV ("The Squall") through XVIII, although Leo and Holly take another eighteen months to reach the Cape Colony in South Africa, where they catch a steamer back to Southampton.
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 20 May 2025