THE MANDRAKE. 253 



brought. This serves the Egyptians for meat, drink, and physic. 

 The flesh of it is eaten with bread; the juice of it is collected in a 

 hole made in the melon, and is a most refreshing, but sometimes 

 dangerous drink ; and the same juice, mixed with rose-water and 

 a little sugar, is the only medicine used by the common people in 

 -burning fevers. This is very comfortable to the patient, for it 

 cools and refreshes him. See Numb. xi. 5. 



THE MANDRAKE. 



THERE are two sorts of Mandrakes: the/ewidfe, which is black, 

 having leaves not unlike lettuce, though smaller and narrower, 

 which spread on the ground, and have a disagreeable smell. It 

 bears berries something like services, pale, of a strong smell, having 

 kernels within, like those of pears. It has two or three very large 

 roots, twisted together, white within, black without, and covered 

 with a thick rind. The other kind, or male mandrake, is called 

 morion, or folly, because it suspends the use of the senses. It pro- 

 duces berries twice the size of those of the female, of a good scent, 

 and of a color approaching towards saffron. Its leaves are white, 

 large, broad, and smooth, like the leaves of the beech tree. Its 

 root resembles that of the female, but is thicker and bigger. This 

 plant stupifies those who use it; sometimes depriving them of un- 

 derstanding ; and often causes such vertigoes and lethargies, that, 

 if those who have taken it have not present assistance, they die in 

 convulsions. 



From Cant. vii. 13, it appears that the mandrake yielded a re- 

 markable smell at the time when the vines and pomegranates 

 flowered, which in Judea is about the end of April, or beginning 

 of May. It is probable, therefore, that this circumstance of their 

 smell is to be referred to the fruit rather than to the flower, espe- 

 cially as Brookes, who has given a particular description and a 

 print of the plant, expressly observes that the fruit has a strong, 

 nauseous smell, though he says nothing about the scent of a flow- 

 er. 



22 



