’” (p. 227)
Obsessed with the past, She prefers the name ”Ayesha” over all others, since this is ”an echo from the past” (p. 150). For the entertainment of her guests, Ayesha organises a diabolic dance which is to take place in ”a great ring of bodies flaring furiously” (p. 210). The festivity appeals to ”moral as well as to the physical susceptibilities,” as Holly puts it. It is indeed astonishing that Ayesha, who worships the corpses in her catacombs and who proudly presents them to her visitors, can be capable of initiating such blasphemous orgies:
”As soon as ever a mummy had burned down to the ankles, which it did in about twenty minutes, the feet were kicked away, and another one put in its place..” (p. 211)
”Also it hath its lesson,” Ayesha assures the baffled spectators, and continues to explain (just like Ustane did earlier on) that roses must be gathered while they may:
”Trust not to the future, for who knows what the future may bring! Therefore, live for the day, and endeavour not to escape the dust which seems to be man’s end.” (p. 211).
The ”play” (p. 211) that is going to follow is really a black mass, introduced by ”a sort of infernal and fiendish cancan” (p. 212) with a ”most ghastly” theme (p. 212). The ”tossing of legs and double shuffling” (p. 212) is interrupted by a large and powerful woman, a ”foaming rolling creature” (p. 212), who hysterically asks for a black goat to satisfy her thirst for blood. This is followed by a sort of carnival of beasts: disguised as different animals, the Amahagger put on a ”lumbering, unnatural” (p. 213) dance and fill the air with animal sounds: ”roars”, ”bleating”, and, of course, the ”hissing of snakes” (p. 213). This is by far not the only scene in which Ayesha appears as a princess of darkness. Shortly before they reach the womb of the world, the gloom provides the ”bridal canopy” (p. 271) for Ayesha’s and Leo’s wedding.
4.3.2.2 Ayesha’s Powers of Transformation: A Threat to Male Dignity
In the presence of the ”savage royalty” (p. 139), male human beings ”turn” into animals. Despite his high age, Billali approaches his Queen ”writhing along on his stomach like a snake” (p. 138), and, in following him, Holly’s dignified English manners are reduced to ”the fashion of an Irishman driving a pig to the market” (p. 139). Like a monkey, he soon sits to Her feet. The Amahagger men whom Ayesha has sentenced to death are referred to by her as ”’wolves’” and ”’tigers to lap blood’” (p. 172). Male animalism is further emphasized by the fact that they eat meat, while Ayesha touches nothing but water, fruit and cakes of flour (p. 151). She plans to turn Leo into a vegetarian, too: ”’I wish I could teach thee to eat naught but fruit, Kallikrates, but that will come after thou hast washed in the fire’” (p. 251).
4.3.2.3 Ayesha’s Superhuman Knowledge and Supernatural Skills: A Threat to Male Values
A ”white sorceress” (p. 156), Ayesha has acquired strange herbal wisdom and esoteric healing skills, and seems to be in command of mystical energies that deprive men of their powers. Her medicine ”’is of a sort to shake life in its very citadel’” (p. 150) and chemistry is her favourite pastime (p. 189). Ayesha constantly strives to lend a scientific air to what Leo refers to as magic:
”’Have I not told thee that there is no such thing as magic, though there is such a thing as understanding, and applying the forces which are in Nature?” (p. 189)[29]