Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-09
rANpRAKE ROOT.
|lams Around which Many
--~. uopaefs Have Gathered.

~lnne Around which Many
1unwe uoDlefs Have Gathered.
hcre is, however, plant round
~ : crowd Of strange beliefs gath
ltuu11eVrKliest times. This Is
AZ 6pa m5ndragora, or man
10 probabt identical with the
11ni1 Of Sc1pture, and called by
>nricsI - g i1peav from its sup
I'D potency in philters. The rude
romblnnce of it's bifurcated root to
= lower half of the human frame
1r1ed its career as an object of cred
~ and an instrument of imposture.
vnn held to be animated with a life
ascending the obscure vitality of
]inary vegetable existence, and
6ult powers of the most remarkable
"a we're attributed to it. The little
1nQo6, lOrmed of the mandrake root,
nSul1edH Has bracles in Germany un-
u the name of Alrunen, and import
~ With great commercial success into
~ country during the reign of
cnry VIII, were credited with the
6wof Of multiplying money left
their charge, and generally of
rlnRing luck to their possessors,
6pecially when their original seat
va been at the foot of gallows,
I'd their, e<st yesturesa q fragment OF a
binding sheet. But privilege, as usual
- here fraught with peril. The
u6Fation of uprooting a mandrake
- = critical one, formidable conse-
ouences ensuing upon its clumsy or
Ho9ligent execution. These were only
y be averted by strict observance
forms prescribed by the wisdom OF
very high antiquity. According to
Rliny, three circles were to be drawn
cund the plant with a sword, with
= which the digger stood, facing
lest. This position had to be COM
&ined, as best it might, with an ap.
roach from the windward side upon
81 uncanny prey. Through the pages
cf Josephus the device gained its
oxliest publicity of employing dog
50 receive the death penalty, attend.
INT. in his belief on eradication. II
Uns widely adopted, and by medieval
ngacity fortified with the additional
descriptions that the canine victim
Mould be black, without a white
hair, that the deed should bt
done before dawn on Friday
md that the ears of the doer should bt
fuffed with cotton wool, for, at thu
Instant of leaving it's parent earth, {
Fearful sound, which no mortal Nigh
hear and sanely survive, issued from
1he uptorn root. This superstition
ound familiar place in English lit
onot1re down to the seventeenth cen
Thus Suffolk, alleging the futility O
Nd language in apology for the back
Wnrdness in11s use with which he hal
ut been reproached by the gentle
Queen Of Henry vi, exclaims:
Rould curses kill as doth the mandrake
froan,
y ourst, a. harsh and horrible to hear.
1aLvered strongly through my fixed teeth
III full as many signs OF deadly hate
= leaned-faced Envy in her loathsomt
cave.
And poor Juliet enumerates among
he horrors of the charnel house:
hrieks like mandrake's torn out of thu
earth, p. -
hat living mortals hearing them, run mad
The superstition was, moreover
secluded among the vulgar error.
avely combatted by Sir Thoma.
EoEne.
lAndragora, then, is the most an
int and the most widely famous O
i magic herbs, and the old conjec
uro d at least plausible one, tina
um its exclusive possession were
eFived the evil powers Of the daugh
II Of Perse. II Macmillan's Magazine