Now it is clearly not an impossible thing that Aphrodite may have something to do with this wizardry: and, therefore, we will not too hastily assume that she is altogether out of kinship with Apollo and Artemis-Hekaté. Something, for instance, of a medical nature must be involved in the fact that "at Oropus she shared an altar with Athena the healer, and the daughters of Asklepios"."

We cannot, however, help feeling that this medical element which put her in the medical school of Athens is something unusual, and that she might more properly be called Panalgeia than Panakeia.

Suppose, now, we ask of the herbalist the question as to which of his simples is likely to operate most powerfully on the affections. If he belongs to the ancient world, he will reply without a moment's hesitation that Mandragora, or Mandrake, is the thing for our money : if he belong to the modern world, he will say that mandragora is only an opiate and not a stimulant. We leave the modern wizards on one side, and interrogate the ancient. What have they to say of this "drowsy syrup"? The answer is full and marvellous. The mandrake is a root which shrieks terribly when you pull it out of the ground; it is, indeed, so dangerous that you must not try to pull it: better tie a dog to the stalk and then entice the dog towards you with a bonne bouche: stop your ears by way of precaution, and use your eyes to see the last dying agonies of the dog who has pulled the root for you. Then go and pick it up. Το your surprise, you will find

the root to have a human form, sometimes male, and sometimes female: it is, in fact, like Falstaff's "forked radish," a little parody of man for the description of the youthful Justice Shallow as a "forked radish" led on to the comparison of him with a mandrake. The experts will tell you that it is rarely to be found except under the gallows, and that it is the humours and juices of the suspended person, especially if the victim of the law be innocent, that have given it the human form.

Naturally one asks whether this is really ancient lore: is it not a myth made in English out of the first syllable of mandrake? Then we recall how Medea, when she wished to make Jason secure from the brazen bulls that breathed fire on him, supplied him with an unguent made from a flower that had been fed with the ichor of the

innocent, martyred Prometheus; so we feel certain that we are, in the main, dealing with primitive matters.

So we must interrogate the herbalists and see where mandrake is to be found, and what can be done with it when you find it. The first thing one comes across is the well-known story in Genesis where little Reuben brings home to his mother Leah some pretty apples which he has found in the field: and Leah, who has no special need for such stimulants, trades them off to her sister Rachel for a consideration. The same love-apples turn up among the flora of the Song of Solomon, where we learn that in the spring-time they give an agreeable scent, a point upon which all nasal artists are not by any means agreed.1 Let us see what old Gerarde has to say on the question of Mandrake: he tells us (p. 357): "There hath been many ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives, or some runnagate surgeons, or physicke-mongers I know not (a title bad enough for them) but sure some one or moe that sought to make themselves famous or skilful above others were the first brochers of that errour I speake of [the supposed human form of the Mandrake]. They adde further that it is never, or very seldome, to be found growing naturally but under a gallowse, where the matter that hath fallen from the dead body hath given it the shape of a man; and the matter of a woman the substance of a female plant, with many other such doltish dreams. They fable further and affirme, That he who would take up a plant thereof must tie a dog thereunto to pull it up, which will give a great shreeke at the digging up: otherwise if a man should do it, he should surely die in short space after. Besides many fables of loving matters, too full of scurrilitie to set forth in print, which I forbeare to speak of. All which dreames and old wives tales you shall from henceforth cast out of your books and memory; knowing this, that they are all and everie part of them false and most untrue: for I myselfe and my servants also have digged up, planted and replanted very many, and yet never could either perceive shape of man or woman, but sometimes one straight root, sometimes two, and often six or seven branches coming from the maine great root, even as Nature list to bestow upon

Howbeit Levinus Lemnius saith, in his discourse on the Secret Miracles of Nature, that the "male Mandrake beareth a lovely pleasant and sweet-scented Apple, like to the yelk of a Hen's Egg, by the enticement whereof Rachel was allured" (p. 264, Anglicé).

it, as to other plantes. But the idle drones that have little or nothing to do but eate and drinke, have bestowed some of the time in carving the roots of Brionie, forming them to the shape of men and women: which falsifying practise hath confirmed the errour amongst the simple and unlearned people, who have taken them upon their report to be true Mandrakes.”

Evidently we want to know some of the fables of loving matters, to which Gerarde refers. Meanwhile, we note that this story of plant-extraction by dogs is a very old belief. That it was, in early times, considered dangerous to dig up the plants may be seen from the directions which Pliny gives to the excavators to keep to the windward of the plant, and then, after tracing round it three circles with the sword, to dig it up with one's face turned to the West.1

As to the supposed virtues of the plant which Gerarde derides, it is sufficient to establish the antiquity of the belief in them, and we can then safely infer a corresponding antiquity of the associated practices.

Dioscorides lets the cat out of the bag by saying that some people call the mandrake by the name Circaea, because its root is thought to be an efficacious philtre:

ἐπειδὴ δοκεῖ ἡ ῥίζα φίλτρων εἶναι ποιητική.

Theophrastus has the same statement, and appears to be the source from which Pliny took his account of the manner of obtaining the

περιγράφειν δὲ καὶ τὸν μανδραγόραν εἰς τρὶς ξίφει, τέμνειν δὲ πρὸς ἑσπέραν βλέποντα· τὸν δ ̓ ἕτερον κύκλῳ περιορχεῖσθαι, καὶ λέγειν ὡς πλεῖστα περὶ ἀφροδισίων.

Theophrastus: De genere plantarum. We are to talk love at the top of our bent when digging the love-apple. So we need have no hesitation in saying that the mandrake was the love-apple of the ancients. Its Hebrew name Dudai is referred to the same stem (Dōd or Dōdō) from which the beloved David and Dido come, and gives the sense of fruit-of-love or love-apple exactly,

1

Pliny, H.N. xxv. 13 (94). Cf. the cutting of the mistletoe on the sacred oak of Errol after it has been gone round three times sun-wise. Cf. also Theophrastus, infra.

2 Diosc., De Mat. Med. iv. 76.