Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-03-21
CUSTOM AND MYTH.
4 POTATO FOR RHECaATIsM-MolY
 AND MANDRAGoRA.
Tracing Back the superstitious Idea of Magical Healing Herbs s-The Land- Iady's Potato-Digging the Man
 drake - The Molly.
Andrew Lang M Al

I -@A-er -u Al
 Il have found out a new cure fo,
 rheumatism, said the lady beside whom
 1t was my privilege to sit at dinner. @You
 carry a potato about ia your pocket. Some one has written an amusing ae.
 count of man who was finishing a
 book lie takes his ideas everywtere
 with him. and 5roods over them even a,
 dinner in the psuses of conversation.
 But here was lady who kindly contrib
 uted to my studies ard offered me folk. lore and surviysls in cultivated Kensing. ton
 My mind had strayed from the potato cure to the New Zealand habit of carrying baked yam at night to frighten away ghosts and the old English belief that bit of bread kept in the pocket was sov- ereign against evil spirits. The human mind works very rapidly. and all this had passed through my brain while I replied In tones of curiosity; "A potato?"
 -les; but it is not every potato that will do heard of the cure in the coun- try. and when l came up 10 town and my husband was complaining of rheu- matism told one of the servants 10 get ne a potato for Mir. Johnson's rheu- matism- Yes. ma'am,' said the man, but it must be stolen potato I had forgotten that We'll. one can't ask ones servants to steal potatoes. It is easy in the country. where you can pick one out of anybOdy's teldl"
 And what did you do?" I asked.
 ~Oh. l drove to Covent Garden and ordered a lot of fruit and flowers. While the man was not looking stole potato very little one don't think there was any harm in 1t.
 And did MT. Johnson try the potato cure1"
 -Yes. he carried it in his pocket and now he is quite we'll l told the doctor and he says he knows of the cure, but dare not recommend it
 How oddly superstiticns survivel The central idea Of this modern folly about the potato is that you must pilfer the root. Let us work the idea of the heal ing or magical herb backwar, from kensingtOn to European folk lore and thence to classical times to Homer and to the Hottentots Turning first to Ger many we note the beliefs. not about the potato. but about another vegetable, the mandrake Of all roots in German super stitiOn the ae=aun or mandrake is the most famous. The herb was conceived of in the savage fashion as a living human per. son. kind of old witch-wife
 Again. the root has a human shape. If a hereditary thief who has preserved his chastity gets hung the broad-leaved. vel lOw-flowered mandrake grows up in his likeness beneath the gallOws from which he is suspended The mandrake. like the moly. the magical herb of the Odyssey. is hard for men to dig. He who desires to possess a mandrake must stop his ears with wax, SO that he may not hear the deathly yells which the giant utters as 1t is being dragged out of the earth Then before sunrise on Friday the amateur goes out with dog -all black, makes three crosses about the root. ties the root to the dogs tail and offers the beast piece of bread. The dog runs at the bread. drags out the mandrake root and falls dead. killed by the horrible yell of ths plant
 So much for mapdragora. which. like the healing potato. has to be acquired stealthily and with peril Now let us ex- anime the Homeric herb moly. The plant is described by Homer with some minutenesS. -Molv." the gods call it. but it is hard for mortal men 10 dig. how belt with the gods all things are possible. The etymologies even of moly are almost as numerous as the etymologists. The black root and white flower of moly are quite unlike the yellow flower and white fieshy root ascribed by Pliny to man. drake. Only confusion is caused by re- garding the two magical herbs as identi- cal