428 pFaat "bore, Iseger^f, on ©I l^ijncf, 



human face in the roots. In Germany, since the time of the 



Goths, the word alruna has borne the double meaning of witch and 

 Mandrake. Considering the roots to possess magical properties, 

 the Germans formed from them little idols, to which the}' gave the 

 name of Alnmen. These images were regularly habited every 

 day, and consulted as oracles; their repute becoming very great, 

 large numbers were manutactured and sold in cases: in this 

 state they were brought over to this country during the reign of 

 Henry VIII., and met with a ready sale. Fraudulent dealers used 

 to replace the Mandrake-roots with those of the White Briony, cut 

 to the shape of men and women, and dried in a hot .'and bath. 



In France, under the nanies of Main de gloire or Maglove, the 



Mandrake became a species of elf; and, till the eighteenth century, 

 there existed a wide-spread superstition among the peasantry con- 

 nedted therewith. Sainte-Palaye writes : " When I asked a peasant 

 one day why he was gathering Mistletoe, he told me that at the 

 foot of the Oaks on which the Mistletoe grew, he had a Mandrake 

 [Main de gloire) ; that this Mandrake had lived in the earth from 

 whence the Mistletoe sprang; that he was a kind of mole; that 

 he who found him was obliged to give him food, — bread, meat, 

 or some other nourishment ; and that he who had once given him 

 food was obliged to give it every day, and in the same quantity, 

 without which the Mandrake would assuredly cause the forgetful 

 one to die. Two of his countrymen, whom he named to me, had, 

 he said, lost their lives; but, as a recompense, this Main de gloire 

 returned on the morrow double what he had received the previous 

 day. If one paid cash for the Main de gloire's food one day, one 

 would find double the amount the following ; and so with anything 

 else. A certain countryman, whom he mentioned as still living, 

 and who had become very rich, was believed to have owed his 

 wealth to the facfl that he had found one of these Mains de gloire" 



The Chinese physicians assert that the Mandrake has the 



faculty of renovating exhausted constitutions. 



MANGO. — The Indian mythologists relate that the daughter 

 of the Sun, persecuted by a wicked enchantress, plunged into a 

 pool, where she was transformed into a golden Lotus. The king 

 became enamoured of the beautiful flower, so the enchantress burnt 

 it; but from its ashes rose the Mango [Mangifera Indica). Then the 

 king fell in love, first with the Mango-flower, and next with the 

 fruit, which he ordered to be carefully preserved for his own use. 

 At last, just as the fruit was ripe, it fell from the bough, and out of 

 it issued the daughter of the Sun, whom the king, after having lost 



and forgotten, now recognised as his former wife. The Indian 



poets are never tired of singing the praises of the Mango, the 

 beauty of its flowers, and the sweetness of its fruit. The Indian 

 Cupid Kamadeva is represented as having five arrows, each tipped 

 with the blossom of a flower which pierce the heart through one of 



