46 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



sunset. 1 A dog was sometimes tied to it, and then 

 called or enticed away. The dog's efforts to move 

 pulled the plant out of the ground. This proceeding, 

 it may be observed, is recommended by Josephus in 

 respect to a plant which he calls baaras, and which, 

 perhaps, is the mandrake, though he states its only 

 use is to drive out demons. 2 A dog is said to be still 

 used near Chieti, in the Abruzzi ; and the Danubian 

 Gipsies, when they gather a kind of orchid called by 

 them boy-root, lay the root half-bare with a knife 

 never before used, and tie a black dog by its tail to it. 

 A piece of ass-flesh is then offered to the animal, and 

 when he springs after it he pulls out the plant. The 

 representation of a linga is carved out of the root in 

 question, wrapped in a piece of hart's leather, and 

 worn on the naked arm to promote conception. 8 The 

 Shang-luh (Phytolacca acinosa) has a similar reputation 

 among the Chinese to that of the mandrake, and for 

 the same reason its anthropomorphous root. We 

 are told, on the authority of a Chinese herbal, that its 

 black ripe fruit is highly valued by rustic women as 

 favouring their fertility. Sorcerers dig it up with 

 magical rites, carve the root into a closer human like- 

 ness and endow it by means of their spells with the 

 capacity of telling fortunes. Finally, without enumera- 

 ting all the parallel beliefs, like the mandrake, it is 



1 Pliny, xxv. 13. See Dr. Colley March, in F. L. xii. 340. 



2 Josephus, Wars, vii. 6. The use of the dog is reported by 

 /Klian (Nat. Anim. xiv. 27) to obtain a herb he called cynospastos, 

 or aglaophotis. 



8 De Gubernatis, Myth. Plantes. ii. 215 note. Prof. Starr (loc. 

 cit.) notes that this root does not simulate human form, but it does 

 suggest the male organ. His article contains an excellent sum- 

 mary of what is known about the mandrake. 



