RANDOLPH. — MANDRAGORA IN FOLK-LORE AND MEDICINE. 493 



Arabia, and that the magi use it to conjure up the gods.* It appears, 

 then, that Aelian is telling a story about a magic plant, and that the 

 origin of this story is to be traced to the Orient, just as that of 

 Josephus's is. 



The significance of the picture in the Dioscorides manuscript is 

 plain. We have evidence that an Oriental myth formerly associated 

 with another plant had by the fifth century been transferred to the 

 mandragora. 



Even in the middle ages the story was amplified somewhat, as appears 

 from the following extract from Schmidel's dissertation f : 



The diggers must go forth on the day of Venus J before sunrise, having 

 filled their ears with cotton and sealed them with i^itch or wax. They must 

 make three circles with a tripod and affix the sign of the cross to the plant ; 

 then dig all about it, until only a single thread of the root remains fast in 

 the earth. After the root has been thus treated, they must tie it with a rope 

 to the tail of a dog, then quickly withdraw, throwing the dog a bit of bread. 

 As he strains to reach the bread he will pull the root, and immediately on 

 bearing its cry will drop dead. 



Here we have the story of the dog pulling the root embellished with a 

 few clumsy details. These are probably to be looked upon as the inven- 

 tion of the swindlers who went about Europe in the middle ages selling 

 the images called mandragorae or alraune. § Their object in circulating 

 the story was doubtless the same as that of the ancient root-diggers, to 

 enhance the value of their wares. 



* Plin., 24. 160. 



t See footnotes, pp. 487 and 488. This extract is from § 53. 



X Friday. 



§ These images were generally not made from the genuine mandragora, but 

 from bryony and other easily procurable roots. See Beyer, p. 738 ff, and the 

 passage there quoted from Matthiolus, Comm. in Diosc, lib. 4, cap. 76 [61]. 



Ascherson, p. 736, says that it can hardly be doubted that artificially prepared 

 mandragora images were known in classical times, and he cites the epithets 

 avdpciiTr6iJ.opcpos and semiltomo (see footnotes below, p. 495) as indicating to him that 

 " art was already helping out nature at that time." But the resemblance of the 

 natural root to the human body must have been striking enough to call forth such 

 epithets, and there could have been no object in so preparing tlie root unless the 

 images were to be used as fetiches. Tlie use of mandragora root for such a pur- 

 pose in classical times, however, is entirely foreign to literature, and there is no 

 evidence that this feature of the later superstition had yet become associated with 

 the plant. When the pseudo-Orphic Lillu'ca were written (probably about the 4th 

 century after Christ), tiie talismanic powers later reported of the mandragora were 

 ascribed to ophites (see p. 497 below). 



