The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-11-15
SUpERsTITIoNs RELATING TO THE MAN.

DRAKE.-Matthiolus, in his commentary
on Dioscorides, describes the great inge-
nuty which had been reached in the car
wing of the root into the human SEM
blance, and the training of little shoots
from seeds planted in it, which were ma
nipulated so as to look like hair. The
same ingenuity was employed to invest
each figure with marvellous legend of its
origin or potency. Naturally it was con.
nected with the devil. The Erdmann
put into a glass bottle became a spider,
then scorpion, was but was never for an
instant still. In the cloistcr of the Cap
uchins, at Vienna, there was shown, in
the last century,a little apparently living,
or ever-moving devil, an inch and half
long black, with human face and long
tail. 1t was kept in a little bottle which
had no opening. By this and similar
contrivances throughout Europe the puz-
zlc called "Cartesian Devils" was sug-
gestcd. Those who had these bottled
devils were subject to dangerous liabili-
ties; for, though the demon would per-
form many services, he who should die
with one in his possessing would become
the devils victim. Nor was it very easy
to get rid of; for unless one could sell it
for little less than he paid for it, it
would remain on his hands. There are
legends of how they were thrown into
fires, into rivers, but were always found
in their rooms when those who so threw
them returned home. A haunted spot is
shown in Lower Wurtemberg, where a
merchant of Ulm tried vainly to get rid
of his Galgemannlein; and for a long
time house stood in Frankfort which
was avoided because it was related that
there baker woman had perished miser-
ably with mandrake in her possession,
which she had tried hard to be rid of.
This diabolical phase Of the superstition
was especially strong in France and Eng
land. 1t was believed by many that 10.
an Of Arc had one of these imps in her
possession, and she was even asked by
the judge at her trial whether such was
not the case; but she replied that she
did not know what mandrake was. At
Romorantin, Margaret Ragum Bouchey,
the wife of a Moor, was hung as a witch
in 1908, the charge against her that she
kept and fed daily a living mandrake
fend, which was stated to be in the form
Of a female ape.
In France the mandrake superstition
seems occasionally to invest some other
root. Thus the author of Secrets du
Petit Albert Q.yons, l7lS) says that a
peasant had II bryonia root Of human
shape, which he received from a gipsy.
He buried it 'at lucky conjunction of
the moon with Venus buried it in
spring, on Monday, in a grave, and
sprinkled it with milk in which three
ficld.micc had been drowned. In q
month it became more human.like than
ever. Then he placed it in an oven with
vcrvan, wrapped it afterward in dead
mans shroud, and so long as he kept it
he never failed in luck at games or work.
The same author says that he saw fig
ure owned by rich Jew which had a
human face on hens body, which had
been produced out of an egg by.a pro-
cess quite indescribable here, save that
the right CONJUNCTION of the moon and
Jupiter was regarded in the procedure.
The monster lived for time on worms,
and after death its potency continued.
The German stories are very curious.
One Of them relates that a householder
Of Augsburg once lost horse, and, being
poor wandered in despair to an inn.
There some men gave him an Alraun, and
on his return home he found bag of
ducats on his table. His wife becoming
suspicious, cxtorted from him the confess
sion that he had some potent charm, and
she induced him to return and take it to
the men; but they could not be found
In the night the wife opened her hus-
bands box, and finding there a purse,
opened that, whereupon black fly buzz
zcd out Soon after the house took fire
and was burned, the householder killed
his wife, and then shot himself. The
German poet Rist relates that he saw
an Erdmann made with great pains, and
more than century old, which was kept
in a coffin. On the coffin was a cloth on
which was a picture of a thief on the gal
lows and mandrake growing beneath it.
Most careful and peculiar provisions were
made in North Germany for the inheri-
tance of the Erdmann. When the pos.
SCISSOR dies his youngest son becomes the
owner, but he must lay piece Of bread
and piece of gold in his fathers coffin,
and they must be buried with him; but
if the youngest son has died before his
father, the eldest nherits, after making
the same offerings. Grimm, Deutsche
Sagen)
If any one will explain the specimen Of
mandrake preserved in the museum Of
the Royal College of Surgeons, in Lon
don, he will hardly wonder that it should
have aroused superstitious feelings. II
is a British specimen-the gift of Chas
Iatchett, f. r. S.-and we must sup
pose has not been tampcrcd with, though
this is difficult to believe; for nothing
could bear a more quaint resemblance to
two heavily bearded human faces-the
eyes, noses, foreheads being traced upon
the heads of the joined bulbs with dis
tnctness that requires no aid from the
Imagination. The roots in this specimen
are short, and hidden by the long rcd,
dish-brown beard but if, as would seem
to be the case in other specimens, such
faces should have human-like limbs pro-
jcctihg beneath them, the effect would be
startling enough. We can not wonder
that Franciscus lmperatus and Fabius
Columna should have both described the
mandrake they saw as "a man in bios
SON."
A case of pickles; A family jar
Can you open banking-account with
Jenny?
When is iron the most ironical ? Whcr
q. 4. ,.a lin,