The Heart of the Wilderness

She walked
with measured steps,
draped in striped and fringed cloths,
treading the earth proudly,
with a slight jingle and flash
of barbarous ornaments.
She carried her head high;
her hair was done
in the shape of a helmet;
she had brass leggings
to the knee;
brass wire gauntlets
to the elbow;
a crimson spot on
her tawny cheek;
inumerable necklaces
of glass beads on her neck;
bizarre things,
charms, gifts of witch-men
that hung about her,
glittered and trembled
at every step.

(She must have had the value
of several
elephant
tusks upon her.)

She was savage
and superb,
wild-eyed
and magnificent;
there was something ominous
and stately in her deliberate
progress.
And in the hush that had
fallen suddenly
upon the whole sorrowful
land,
the immense wilderness,
the colossal body of the
fecund and mysterious life
seemed to look at her,
pensive,
as though it
had been looking at the image
of its own tenebrous
and passionate
soul.

- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness