Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-03-20
CUSTOM AND MYTH.
A POTATO FOR MATlSM-MOLY
AND MANDRAGORA.
Tracing Back the Superstitious Idea Of
Magical Healing Herbs-Thc Land
lady's Potato-Digging the Man
drake 49, The Molly.


Andrew Lang, VI. A.
81 have found out new cure for
rheumatism, said the lady beside whom
ii was my privilege to sit at dinner. "Iou
carry potato about in your pocket.
Some one has written an amusing ac.
count of a man who was finishing a
book. lie takes his ideas everywhere
with him, and broods over them even at
dinner in the pauses Of conversation
But here was IA lady who kindly contrib
uted to my studies and offered me folk
lore and suryiyals in cultivated kensnI
ton.
My mind had straycd from the potato
cure to the New ; caland habi, of carrying
baked yam at night to brighten away
ghosts, and 10 the Old English belief that
bit of bread kept I'm the pocket was SOY.
ereign against evil spirits The human
mind works very rapidly, and all this had
passed through my brain while replied
in tones of curiosity: a potato?"
:" Yes; but it is not every potato that
will do. heard of the cure in the coun-
try, and when | came up to town and my
husband was complaining of rhcu-
matsm told one OF the servants to yet
me potato for Mr.. Johnsons rheu
matism yes, ma'am,' said the man,
but it must be Il stolen potato | had
forgotten that Well one can I ask ones
servants to steal potatoes 1t is easy in
the country, where you can pick one out
of anybodys field"
And what did you do" asked
"Oh | drove 10 Covent Garden and
ordered lot of fruit and flowers While
the man was not looking stole potato
very little one | don't think there was
any harm in it,
And did Mr.. Johnson try the potato
cure"
Yes, he carried it in his pocket and
now he is quite we'll | told the doctor
and he says he knows OF the cure, but
dare not recommend it.
How oddly supcrstitions survive The
central idea of this modern folly about
the potato is that you must pilfcr the
root. Let us work the idea OF jhc heal.
ing or magical herb backwar from
kcnsington to European folklore and
thence to classical times to Homer and to
the Hottcntots. 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 aeraun or mandrake is the most
famous. The herb was conceived of in
the savage fashion as "A living human per.
son, a kind of old witch wife
Again, the root has Il humSn shane If
hereditary thief who has preserved his
chastity gets hung the broad eaved. vel
low-towered 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. lie who desires
to possess Il mandrake must stop his ears
with wax, so that he may not hear the
deathly ycils which the giant utters as it
is being dragged out of the earth Then
before sunrise on II Friday the amateur
goes out with dog AL black" makes
three crosses about the root ties the root
to the dog tail and offers the beast n
piece of bread. The dog runs at the bread
drags out the mandrake root and falls
dead, killed by the horrible yell of the
plant.
SO much for maudragora, which, like
the healing potato, has TO be acquired
stcalthily and with peril Now let us eX.
anime the lIomeric herb molly. The
plant is described by Homer with some
minuteness. "Moly,' the gods call it,
but it is hard for mortal men TO dig, how.
belt with the gods all Things are possible
The etymologes even Of molly are almost
as numerous as the etymoogists. The
black root and white flower OF molv are
quite unlike the yellow flower and white
iieshy root ascribed by Pliny to man
drake. Only confusion is caused by re-.
garding the two magical herbs as identi