24-3 
Mandrake. 
“The phantom shapes—oh, touch them not— 
That appal the murderer’s sight, 
Lurk in the fleshly mandrake’s stem, 
That shrieks when pluck’d at night. ” 
So says Moore in verse, only repeating what many have said 
gravely in prose. 
Another terrible quality imputed to this wretched plant was 
that the person pulling it out of the ground would be seriously 
injured by its pestilential effects, some even averring that 
death speedily resulted from them; in order, therefore, to 
guard against this danger, the surrounding soil was removed, 
and the plant fastened securely to a dog, so that when the 
animal was driven away he drew up the root, and paid the 
penalty of the deed. 
