ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Rider Haggard’s ‘mining’ or appropriation of various katabatic topoi that accompany the treasure-seeking endeavours of the heroes in King Solomon’s Mines in order to determine the historical, conceptual and symbolic significance of this motif in Haggard’s literary imagination. The relationship between maps, treasure and empire is further shown in the novel through the image of the bone pen da Silvestra used to draw the treasure map that becomes instrumental to the men’s mission and acquisition of spoils. The concept of Africa as a hazardous unknown is central to the novel and the idea is evoked explicitly on several occasions, accompanied by deep sense of awe and foreboding. The last and most evocatively katabatic element of the novel comes towards the end of the narrative with the heroes’ much anticipated passage into the mines. The chapter argues that the katabatic narrative lends itself particularly well to Haggard’s African romance characterised by the themes of imperial adventure, exploration and plunder.
