Orakel Classics
King Solomon's Mines
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, prepared as a public-domain Orakel edition with 21 chapter-aware companion links.
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION from King Solomon's Mines. Now that this book is printed, and about to be given to the world, a sense of its shortcomings both in style and contents, weighs very heavily upon me. As regards the latter, I can only say that it does not pretend to be a full account of everything we did and saw. There are many things connected with our journey into Kukuanaland that I should have liked to dwell upon at length, which, as it is, have been scarcely
Open2CHAPTER I.: I MEET SIR HENRY CURTIS
CHAPTER I.: I MEET SIR HENRY CURTIS from King Solomon's Mines. It is a curious thing that at my age—fifty-five last birthday—I should find myself taking up a pen to try to write a history. I wonder what sort of a history it will be when I have finished it, if ever I come to the end of the trip! I have done a good many things in my life, which seems a long one to me, owing to my having begun work so young, perhaps. At an age when other boys are at school I was earning my living
Open3CHAPTER II.: THE LEGEND OF SOLOMON’S MINES
CHAPTER II.: THE LEGEND OF SOLOMON’S MINES from King Solomon's Mines. “What was it that you heard about my brother’s journey at Bamangwato?” asked Sir Henry, as I paused to fill my pipe before replying to Captain
Open4CHAPTER III.: UMBOPA ENTERS OUR SERVICE
CHAPTER III.: UMBOPA ENTERS OUR SERVICE from King Solomon's Mines. It takes from four to five days, according to the speed of the vessel and the state of the weather, to run up from the Cape to Durban. Sometimes, if the landing is bad at East London, where they have not yet made that wonderful harbour they talk so much of, and sink such a mint of money in, a ship is delayed for twenty-four hours before the cargo boats can get out to take off the goods. But on this occasion we had
Open5CHAPTER IV.: AN ELEPHANT HUNT
CHAPTER IV.: AN ELEPHANT HUNT from King Solomon's Mines. Now I do not propose to narrate at full length all the incidents of our long travel up to Sitanda’s Kraal, near the junction of the Lukanga and Kalukwe Rivers. It was a journey of more than a thousand miles from Durban, the last three hundred or so of which we had to make on foot, owing to the frequent presence of the dreadful “tsetse” fly, whose bite is fatal to all animals except donkeys and
Open6CHAPTER V.: OUR MARCH INTO THE DESERT
CHAPTER V.: OUR MARCH INTO THE DESERT from King Solomon's Mines. We had killed nine elephants, and it took us two days to cut out the tusks, and having brought them into camp, to bury them carefully in the sand under a large tree, which made a conspicuous mark for miles round. It was a wonderfully fine lot of ivory. I never saw a better, averaging as it did between forty and fifty pounds a tusk. The tusks of the great bull that killed poor Khiva scaled one hundred and seventy
Open7CHAPTER VI.: WATER! WATER!
CHAPTER VI.: WATER! WATER! from King Solomon's Mines. Two hours later, that is, about four o’clock, I woke up, for so soon as the first heavy demand of bodily fatigue had been satisfied, the torturing thirst from which I was suffering asserted itself. I could sleep no more. I had been dreaming that I was bathing in a running stream, with green banks and trees upon them, and I awoke to find myself in this arid wilderness, and to remember, as Umbopa had said, that if we
Open8CHAPTER VII.: SOLOMON’S ROAD
CHAPTER VII.: SOLOMON’S ROAD from King Solomon's Mines. This was a new idea, and we re-entered the place to put it to the proof. After the bright light outside, our eyes, weak as they were with staring at the snow, could not pierce the gloom of the cave for a while. Presently, however, they grew accustomed to the semi-darkness, and we advanced towards the dead
Open9CHAPTER VIII.: WE ENTER KUKUANALAND
CHAPTER VIII.: WE ENTER KUKUANALAND from King Solomon's Mines. All that afternoon we travelled along the magnificent roadway, which trended steadily in a north-westerly direction. Infadoos and Scragga walked with us, but their followers marched about one hundred paces
Open10CHAPTER IX.: TWALA THE KING
CHAPTER IX.: TWALA THE KING from King Solomon's Mines. It will not be necessary for me to detail at length the incidents of our journey to Loo. It took two full days’ travelling along Solomon’s Great Road, which pursued its even course right into the heart of Kukuanaland. Suffice it to say that as we went the country seemed to grow richer and richer, and the kraals, with their wide surrounding belts of cultivation, more and more numerous. They were all built upon the
Open11CHAPTER X.: THE WITCH-HUNT
CHAPTER X.: THE WITCH-HUNT from King Solomon's Mines. “It is so, my lords. Alas! the land cries out because of his cruelties. To-night ye shall see. It is the great witch-hunt, and many will be smelt out as wizards and slain. No man’s life is safe. If the king covets a man’s cattle, or a man’s wife, or if he fears a man that he should excite a rebellion against him, then Gagool, whom ye saw, or some of the witch-finding women whom she has taught, will smell that man
Open12CHAPTER XI.: WE GIVE A SIGN
CHAPTER XI.: WE GIVE A SIGN from King Solomon's Mines. For a long while—two hours, I should think—we sat there in silence, being too much overwhelmed by the recollection of the horrors we had seen to talk. At last, just as we were thinking of turning in—for the night drew nigh to dawn—we heard a sound of steps. Then came the challenge of a sentry posted at the kraal gate, which apparently was answered, though not in an audible tone, for the steps still advanced; and in
Open13CHAPTER XII.: BEFORE THE BATTLE
CHAPTER XII.: BEFORE THE BATTLE from King Solomon's Mines. Luckily for us, Infadoos and the chiefs knew all the paths of the great town perfectly, so that we passed by side-ways unmolested, and notwithstanding the gloom we made fair
Open14CHAPTER XIII.: THE ATTACK
CHAPTER XIII.: THE ATTACK from King Solomon's Mines. Slowly, and without the slightest appearance of haste or excitement, the three columns crept on. When within about five hundred yards of us, the main or centre column halted at the root of a tongue of open plain which ran up into the hill, to give time to the other divisions to circumvent our position, which was shaped more or less in the form of a horse-shoe, with its two points facing towards the town of Loo. The
Open15CHAPTER XIV.: THE LAST STAND OF THE GREYS
CHAPTER XIV.: THE LAST STAND OF THE GREYS from King Solomon's Mines. In a few more minutes the regiments destined to carry out the flanking movements had tramped off in silence, keeping carefully to the lee of the rising ground in order to conceal their advance from the keen eyes of Twala’s
Open16CHAPTER XV.: GOOD FALLS SICK
CHAPTER XV.: GOOD FALLS SICK from King Solomon's Mines. After the fight was ended, Sir Henry and Good were carried into Twala’s hut, where I joined them. They were both utterly exhausted by exertion and loss of blood, and, indeed, my own condition was little better. I am very wiry, and can stand more fatigue than most men, probably on account of my light weight and long training; but that night I was quite done up, and, as is always the case with me when exhausted, that
Open17CHAPTER XVI.: THE PLACE OF DEATH
CHAPTER XVI.: THE PLACE OF DEATH from King Solomon's Mines. It was already dark on the third day after the scene described in the previous chapter when we camped in some huts at the foot of the “Three Witches,” as the triangle of mountains is called to which Solomon’s Great Road runs. Our party consisted of our three selves and Foulata, who waited on us—especially on Good—Infadoos, Gagool, who was borne along in a litter, inside which she could be heard muttering and cursing
Open18CHAPTER XVII.: SOLOMON’S TREASURE CHAMBER
CHAPTER XVII.: SOLOMON’S TREASURE CHAMBER from King Solomon's Mines. While we were engaged in recovering from our fright, and in examining the grisly wonders of the Place of Death, Gagool had been differently occupied. Somehow or other—for she was marvellously active when she chose—she had scrambled on to the great table, and made her way to where our departed friend Twala was placed, under the drip, to see, suggested Good, how he was “pickling,” or for some dark purpose of her own.
Open19CHAPTER XVIII.: WE ABANDON HOPE
CHAPTER XVIII.: WE ABANDON HOPE from King Solomon's Mines. I can give no adequate description of the horrors of the night which followed. Mercifully they were to some extent mitigated by sleep, for even in such a position as ours wearied nature will sometimes assert itself. But I, at any rate, found it impossible to sleep much. Putting aside the terrifying thought of our impending doom—for the bravest man on earth might well quail from such a fate as awaited us, and I never
Open20CHAPTER XIX.: IGNOSI’S FAREWELL
CHAPTER XIX.: IGNOSI’S FAREWELL from King Solomon's Mines. Ten days from that eventful morning found us once more in our old quarters at Loo; and, strange to say, but little the worse for our terrible experience, except that my stubbly hair came out of the treasure cave about three shades greyer than it went in, and that Good never was quite the same after Foulata’s death, which seemed to move him very greatly. I am bound to say, looking at the thing from the point of view
Open21CHAPTER XX.: FOUND
CHAPTER XX.: FOUND from King Solomon's Mines. And now I come to perhaps the strangest adventure that happened to us in all this strange business, and one which shows how wonderfully things are brought
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