MONSTERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



743 



conducted us to this dark road, by maintaining that the 

 roots of this plant were of a human form, a fact pointed 

 out by the name anthropomorphos which Theophrastus 

 gave it, whilst Columella called it semihomo. 



To speak the truth, they in no way resemble a man, but 

 the credulity of the learned and the astuteness of charlatan- 

 ism have supplied what was requisite to give the appear- 

 ance of truth to the opinions of the ancients. It was after 

 they had rudely shaped them into human likeness that the 

 magicians employed them in their incantations, and it was 





270. Mandragora Roots Carved ; used for Enchantment. 



also under this form that the vulgar thought they were 

 found at the foot of gibbets, where, after having fed on the 

 remains of those who had suffered punishment, they had 

 taken on their shape. The tenants of a place so sinister 

 and so dreaded could not be removed without great dan- 

 ger. The learned themselves did not attempt to destroy 

 so many absurdities, for in their works they sometimes 

 represent mandrakes which resembled men and women, for 

 there were some of both sexes. They possessed the same 

 power as the enchanted philtres of Circe, to which Pliny 



