King Solomon's Mines

Summary

King Solomon's Mines is told by Allan Quatermain, an elephant hunter of Durban in Natal, who writes the story for his son Harry, a medical student in London. On a ship from Cape Town he meets Sir Henry Curtis, a huge, fair-bearded English baronet, and his friend Captain John Good, a retired naval officer with an eyeglass and false teeth. Sir Henry is searching for his younger brother George, who quarreled with him, took the name Neville, and went north two years before in search of the fabled mines of King Solomon. Quatermain owns an old map drawn in blood on linen by the Portuguese José da Silvestra in 1590, and he agrees to guide the search for a share of any treasure and provision for Harry if he dies. They engage servants, among them a tall, dignified man called Umbopa who asks to join without pay. After an elephant hunt in which the servant Khiva is killed saving Good, the party crosses a waterless desert, nearly dies of thirst, finds a hidden spring, and climbs the snowy peaks called Sheba's Breasts, where the Hottentot Ventvögel dies of cold in a cave beside the frozen body of da Silvestra himself. Beyond lies Kukuanaland and Solomon's great road. Taken for white men from the stars because of Good's removable teeth and half-shaven face, they are brought before the one-eyed king Twala, who rules with the help of the ancient witch-finder Gagool. After a witch-hunt in which many are killed, Umbopa reveals that he is Ignosi, son of the murdered king Imotu, and shows the sacred snake tattooed round his waist. Using an almanac, the travelers predict an eclipse of the moon to stop the sacrifice of the girl Foulata and to win the support of chiefs led by Ignosi's uncle Infadoos. In the battle that follows, the veteran Greys regiment makes a heroic last stand, and Sir Henry kills Twala in single combat. Good, wounded, recovers from fever through Foulata's nursing. Gagool leads the three men past the colossal Silent Ones and the petrified kings in the Place of Death into Solomon's treasure chamber; there she stabs Foulata and is crushed by the closing stone door, trapping the men among the diamonds until they find a passage out. Ignosi, now king, lets them go and vows to close his land to outsiders. Returning by another route, they find George Curtis lamed at an oasis and bring him home. Cassell published the novel in September 1885; the library text follows a 1907 Cassell edition.

Plot or Argument

• Introduction and the meeting at sea (Introduction; Chapters I-II)

  Quatermain explains why he writes and promises a story with no petticoat in it except Foulata. On the voyage from the Cape he meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, hears of Sir Henry's missing brother, and tells the legend of Solomon's mines and of the dying da Silvestra, whose blood-drawn map he possesses.

• Umbopa and the elephant hunt (Chapters III-IV)

  The tall Umbopa joins the expedition, speaking to Sir Henry almost as an equal. At Sitanda's kraal they hunt elephants, and Khiva throws himself before a charging bull to save Good.

• Desert and mountains (Chapters V-VII)

  Umbopa answers Sir Henry's resolve with his speech on life. The party crosses the desert, nearly perishing of thirst until they find water at a small hill, then climbs Sheba's Breasts, where Ventvögel freezes to death in the cave that holds the frozen body of José da Silvestra. They reach Solomon's road.

• Kukuanaland and the court of Twala (Chapters VIII-X)

  Infadoos meets them and leads them to Loo. Twala, who seized the throne by killing his twin brother Imotu, receives them with the old witch-finder Gagool at his side. At the great dance the witch-doctors smell out victims for death; that night Umbopa reveals himself as Ignosi, the rightful king.

• The sign of the eclipse (Chapters XI-XII)

  To save Foulata from sacrifice and prove Ignosi's claim, the white men announce that they will darken the moon, and the eclipse they foresaw from Good's almanac comes on time. The rebels withdraw to a fortified hill and prepare for battle.

• Battle and the Greys (Chapters XIII-XIV)

  Twala's regiments attack. Infadoos's Greys hold a neck of ground and are nearly destroyed while the flanking movement succeeds. Sir Henry fights Twala hand to hand and kills him; Ignosi becomes king.

• Good's illness and Ignosi's promises (Chapter XV)

  Good stitches the wounds, but his own wound turns to high fever and delirium, and Foulata nurses him through a crisis. Ignosi promises that no blood will be shed without trial and that witch-hunting will cease.

• The Place of Death and the treasure (Chapters XVI-XVIII)

  Gagool guides them past the three Silent Ones to a cavern where the dead kings sit, coated in stalactite, at a stone table before the White Death. In the treasure chamber she stabs Foulata and is crushed beneath the descending stone door. Trapped in the dark with diamonds and gold, the three men find a trapdoor and crawl to freedom.

• Farewell and the finding of George (Chapters XIX-XX)

  Ignosi reproaches them for loving the stones, then accepts their wish to go home and vows to keep traders, guns and missionaries out of his land. Crossing by a new route, they find George Curtis and his servant Jim living at an oasis, George lamed by a boulder. A letter from Sir Henry in England invites Quatermain to come home.

Characters

• Allan Quatermain, narrator

  Experienced, self-mocking elephant hunter of Natal who calls himself timid yet proves steady in every crisis.

• Sir Henry Curtis, leader of the search

  Gigantic English baronet with a Danish look, seeking his estranged brother; called Incubu by the Kukuanas.

• Captain John Good, companion

  Retired naval officer, comic in his neatness, eyeglass and false teeth, and a capable surgeon; called Bougwan.

• Umbopa (Ignosi), servant and rightful king

  Proud, eloquent man who joins as a servant and is revealed as the exiled heir of Kukuanaland.

• Twala, king of the Kukuanas

  One-eyed usurper who killed his twin brother Imotu and rules through fear and the witch-hunts.

• Gagool, witch-finder

  Ancient, shriveled wise woman who keeps the secret of the treasure and leads the witch-doctors.

• Infadoos, chief and ally

  Twala's younger half-brother and Ignosi's uncle, commander of the Greys, who joins the rebellion.

• Foulata, Kukuana girl

  Girl saved from sacrifice by the eclipse, who nurses Good through his fever and dies in the treasure chamber.

• Scragga, Twala's son

  Cruel prince who carries out his father's killings.

• George Curtis (Neville), Sir Henry's brother

  Younger brother who went north under another name and is found lamed at an oasis.

• Khiva and Ventvögel, servants

  Khiva dies saving Good from an elephant; the Hottentot hunter Ventvögel dies of cold on the mountains.

Lessons

• A journey undertaken for love

  Sir Henry does not seek diamonds but the brother he quarreled with. He tells Umbopa that no mountain or desert stops a man whose love leads him and who counts his life as nothing. The whole expedition, with its thirst, cold and battle, becomes the measure of that resolve, and it ends with a reconciliation at a desert oasis.

  • Why does Sir Henry feel responsible for his brother's disappearance?
  • How do Quatermain's reasons for going differ from Sir Henry's?
  • Is it right to risk the lives of others for a personal search?

• The rightful king

  Umbopa's revelation as Ignosi turns the treasure hunt into a story of a usurper overthrown. Haggard gives Ignosi the dignity of a returning heir: he proves his birth by the sacred snake, wins chiefs by reason and sign, and promises justice by trial. His farewell also states his own purpose for his people in strong terms.

  • What signs does Ignosi use to prove that he is the rightful king?
  • Why do the chiefs need the eclipse as well as Ignosi's word?
  • What kind of king does Ignosi promise to be, and why does he wish to close his borders?

• Treasure and its worth

  The heroes reach a chamber holding more wealth than they can carry and immediately find it useless, sealed in the dark without food or water. Haggard gives Quatermain the reflection that wealth is valueless at the last, and gives Ignosi the reproach that his friends love the stones more than him.

  • What does Quatermain realize as the stone door shuts them in?
  • Is Ignosi's accusation fair to the three men?
  • How do the diamonds finally get used, and does that change their meaning?

• Courage in many forms

  Khiva's sacrifice, the last stand of the Greys, Foulata's nursing and Quatermain's step between the girl and Scragga's spear all show different kinds of courage. Quatermain himself, who keeps insisting he is a cautious man, shows that courage can coexist with fear.

  • Which act of courage in the book seems to you the greatest, and why?
  • How does Quatermain's humor about his own timidity affect the way we read his bravery?
  • What does the stand of the Greys accomplish for the battle as a whole?

Context

Haggard wrote from six years' experience of Natal and the Transvaal in the 1870s, a period of British expansion in southern Africa that included the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and the first Boer war of 1880-81. The Kukuanas are an imagined people modeled partly on Zulu military organization, with regiments, kraals and royal councils; Umbopa is said to be a Zulu by upbringing. The novel reflects the imperial outlook and the racial language of its period and place, which appear in Quatermain's narration and in the speeches Haggard gives to his African characters. Interest in ruins such as Great Zimbabwe and in the gold and diamond discoveries of the 1860s-1880s gave the legend of a lost biblical mine a plausible setting for its readers.

Composition

According to a long-told family story, Haggard wrote the book in a few weeks in 1885 after his brother wagered that he could not write anything half as good as Stevenson's Treasure Island. Cassell published it in September 1885 with a dedication from Quatermain to all the big and little boys who read it. The library text is Project Gutenberg #2166, typed from a 1907 Cassell edition that includes Haggard's author's note of 1898 and a postscript of 1907.

Reception

The novel sold in great numbers on publication. It established the lost-world adventure romance, which Haggard continued in She and Allan Quatermain and which later writers, among them Arthur Conan Doyle in The Lost World (1912), took up. It has been filmed several times, notably in 1937 and 1950, and Allan Quatermain became one of the best-known adventurers of Victorian fiction.

Comparisons

• treasure-island

  Haggard wrote in answer to Stevenson's success: both are first-person treasure quests with a map, a perilous voyage and greedy men brought to grief, but Haggard moves the hunt from a pirate island to an imagined African kingdom with a war of succession.

• the-jungle-book

  Kipling and Haggard, friends and contemporaries, both wrote adventure from the edges of the British Empire; Kipling's jungle has its own Law and council, as Kukuanaland has its king's law and regiments.

• journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth

  Verne's travelers also follow an old document by a long-dead explorer, written in an older language, into the depths of the earth; both books build their marvels on the trust that the old explorer told the truth.

• heart-of-darkness

  Conrad's journey into Africa, published fourteen years later, also turns on ivory, a remote ruler and a lost European, but where Haggard writes romance with a confident narrator, Conrad's Marlow narrates in doubt and moral uncertainty.

• the-bible

  The legend draws on 1 Kings 9-10 and 2 Chronicles 9, where Solomon's ships bring gold from Ophir and the Queen of Sheba visits with spices and precious stones; Haggard names the mountains Sheba's Breasts and the idols after the gods Solomon is said to have honored late in life (1 Kings 11).

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Quatermain's Introduction and dedication, where he sets out his reasons for writing and his plain, joking voice.
• Umbopa's speech on life in Chapter V and his hint that he too seeks a brother beyond the mountains.
• The witch-hunt at the great dance in Chapter X and how it prepares Ignosi's later promise of trial before death.
• How the eclipse in Chapter XI depends on Good's almanac and on the travelers' nerve as the moon is slow to darken.
• Ignosi's two speeches of farewell in Chapter XIX, first in anger and then in a changed voice.

Key terms and names

Kukuanaland

The hidden kingdom beyond Sheba's Breasts, organized in regiments under a king, invented by Haggard.

Kraal

A settlement of huts surrounded by a fence, the basic dwelling place of the Kukuanas and of the peoples of Natal in the novel.

Impi

A regiment or army; Ignosi offers his impis to his friends and Infadoos commands the Greys.

Witch-finder

Gagool and her assistants, who smell out supposed evildoers at the great dance so that the king may have them killed.

The Silent Ones

Three colossal seated figures at the mines, which Quatermain, remembering the Old Testament, connects with Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom.

Macumazahn, Incubu, Bougwan

The African names of Quatermain, Sir Henry and Good, which mark how others see each man.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Sir Henry Curtis want to cross the desert, and what does Quatermain ask in return for guiding him?
2. Comprehension How do the travelers use the eclipse, and what does it accomplish?
3. Comprehension What happens to Foulata and to Gagool in the treasure chamber?
4. Interpretation What does Umbopa's speech in Chapter V reveal about him before we know he is a king?
5. Interpretation Why does Ignosi's mood change during his farewell, and what persuades him?
6. Interpretation How does Quatermain's humor about his own fearfulness shape our trust in him as a narrator?
7. Big Question Is a ruler right to close his country to strangers in order to keep its way of life, as Ignosi vows to do?
8. Big Question What makes wealth valuable, and when does it lose its value?

Faith Connections

• 1 Kings 10; 1 Kings 11:5-7 (Scripture)

  Solomon's wealth from Ophir and the Queen of Sheba's visit supply the legend of the mines, and the gods Solomon turned to in old age, Ashtoreth, Milcom and Chemosh, are the names Quatermain suggests for the Silent Ones.

• Matthew 6:19-21 (Scripture)

  Treasure on earth that moth and rust corrupt is set against treasure in heaven; the sealed diamond chamber, where riches are useless to dying men, makes the saying concrete.

• James 4:14 (Scripture)

  James calls life a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes; Umbopa's images of the white breath of oxen and the bird passing through the firelight make the same point in his own idiom.

• Bede, Ecclesiastical History II.13 (Great Conversation)

  A counselor of King Edwin of Northumbria compares life to a sparrow flying through a lit hall from winter dark into dark again, an image strikingly close to Umbopa's storm-driven bird.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A just cause, a loyal company and steady courage can overcome desert, mountain and tyranny; but the treasure that tempted men there is worthless beside the friends gained and the brother found.

Rhetorical device: anaphora. Umbopa's speech in Chapter V repeats What is life? and builds its answer through a chain of images, it is a feather, it is the seed of the grass, and later the glow-worm, the breath of oxen and the little shadow.

Debate: Resolved: that Ignosi is wise to close Kukuanaland to traders, guns and outsiders.

Memory Work

Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go. Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of the Nowhere; for a moment our wings are seen in the light of the fire, and, lo! we are gone again into the Nowhere.

Truly wealth, which men spend their lives in acquiring, is a valueless thing at the last.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace Umbopa's progress from servant to king: what qualities does Haggard give him at each stage, and how do they prepare his decision in the farewell chapter?

Comparison with Treasure Island: Compare the treasure hunts in King Solomon's Mines and Treasure Island: who seeks the treasure, what it costs, and what each narrator concludes about wealth.

Medical Lens

The novel is a useful record of how a late-Victorian adventure writer imagined field medicine. After the battle Captain Good, described as a very decent amateur surgeon, cleans and stitches Sir Henry's jaw wound and his own leg wound by lamplight and smears them with antiseptic ointment, a detail that shows how quickly antiseptic practice of the Lister era had entered the general reader's picture of good surgery. Good nonetheless develops a high wound fever with delirium and coughs blood, which Quatermain attributes to an internal injury, and his crisis passes on the fifth night under Foulata's constant nursing; she gives him a cooling drink of milk and bulb juice, and keeps flies away, while by the king's order the huts around are emptied so that no noise reaches the sick man. Quatermain is himself narrating for his son Harry, who is training at a London hospital, and the frame lets him speak as a layman reporting to a future doctor. The desert chapters describe extreme thirst and heat, the mountain chapters death from cold, and the treasure-chamber chapters the fear of slow death by hunger and darkness. Gagool's great age and shriveled appearance are presented as uncanny rather than clinical.

• Chapter VI, Water! Water!

  The party, out of water in the desert heat, nearly collapses before finding a spring at the hill.

  Starvation Nutrition
• Chapter VII, Solomon's Road

  Ventvögel dies of cold in the mountain cave; the travelers find the frozen, preserved body of José da Silvestra.

  Death Dying
• Chapter XV, Good Falls Sick

  Good stitches the wounds and applies antiseptic ointment; his fever, delirium and blood-spitting follow, and Foulata nurses him through the crisis.

  Surgery WAR Wounds Fever Infection Nursing Caregiving
• Chapter XVIII, We Abandon Hope

  Trapped in the treasure chamber with little food and water, the men count their matches and anticipate death from hunger and thirst.

  Starvation Nutrition Death Dying

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write Foulata's account of the five nights she nursed Bougwan, from the battle to the morning the fever broke.

• Dialogue

  Stage the council in which Infadoos and the chiefs debate whether to trust Ignosi before the eclipse comes.

• Essay

  Compare Sir Henry's reasons for the journey with Quatermain's. Which motive does the novel honor most, and how can you tell?

• Classroom

  Trace the route on a sketch map from Durban to Sitanda's kraal, across the desert, over Sheba's Breasts and down Solomon's road to Loo, marking where each companion is lost.

Further Reading

• Allan Quatermain, H. Rider Haggard

  The 1887 sequel, in which Quatermain, Sir Henry and Good travel to another hidden African kingdom.

• She, H. Rider Haggard

  Haggard's other great romance of a lost African city and its immortal queen.

• Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

  The book Haggard is said to have set out to rival.

• The Days of My Life, H. Rider Haggard

  Haggard's autobiography, published posthumously in 1926.