Here we touch the origin of the mandrake superstitions.
The mandrake acts, if thus considerately treated, as a kind of familiar spirit.
In precisely the same way, the mandrake root, being thought to resemble the human body, was credited with human and superhuman powers.
Of all roots, in German superstition, the Alraun, ormandrake is the most famous.
He who desires to possess a mandrake must stop his ears with wax, so that he may not hear the deathly yells which the plant utters as it is being dragged out of the earth.
This identification of moly with mandrake is probably based on Homer's remark that moly is 'hard to dig.
It is remarkable that rue, according to Pliny, is killed by the touch of a woman in the same way as, according to Josephus, the mandrake is tamed.
The dog runs at the bread, drags out the mandrake root, and falls dead, killed by the horrible yell of the plant.
I have in my tyme at diverse tymes tak[=e] up the rootes of mandrake out of the grounde but I never saw any such thyng upon or in them as are in and upon the pedlers rootes that are comenly to be solde in boxes.
Both mandrake and periwinkle were supposed to be endowed with mysterious powers against demoniacal possession.
One of the most interesting figures is that of the mandrake (painted in a deep madder), which embodies the old legend that it was death to dig up the root, and that therefore a dog was tied to a rope and made to drag it up.
Bartholomew gives the old mandrake legend in full, though he adds, "it is so feynd of churles others of wytches," and he also writes of its use as an anaesthetic.
Further, he records two other beliefs about the mandrake which I have never found in any other English herbal--namely, that while uprooting it one must beware of contrary winds, and that one must go on digging for it until sunset.
That, if ivory is boiled with mandrake root for six hours, the ivory will become so soft "that it will take what form or impression you will give it.
This plant was the mandragora of the poets, the mandrake of Scripture, a species of the Solanæ or Nightshade tribe; the belief in whose qualities as a sedative or a charm was as old as the days of the childless Rachel.
Elizabeth, little images made of mandrake roots, called abrunes, were imported in large numbers from Germany, and found a ready sale in England.
With the Mandrake and the Manchineel She builds her pile accurst.
She knew the place where the mandrake grew, And round the neck of the ounce, And round the mandrake's head She tightens the ends of her cord.
Dry and powder the mandrakeroot (often called may-apple) and take about one teaspoonful.
But these mandrake fables are mostly of foreign extraction and of very ancient date.
In days gone by, when the mandrake was an object of superstitious veneration by reason of its supernatural character, the Germans made little idols of its root, which were consulted as oracles.
In Silesia, Thuringia, and Bohemia the mandrake is, in addition to its many mystic properties, connected with the idea of hidden treasures.
Oftentimes substituted for the mandrake was the briony, which designing people sold at a good profit.
It was believed that a small dose of the mandrake made persons proud of their beauty, but that a larger quantity deprived them of their senses still more completely, and made them yet more effectually idiots.
The victories of the Maid of Orleans over the English were ascribed to her possession of a mandrake root.
Kuhn contends that this human form was given to the mandrake and the wish-rod because both were believed to be of divine or supernatural origin, and represented a species of demi-god, of the lightning tribe.
The root of the mandrake is believed to bear some resemblance to a human being, and appears to have been used in England by sorcerers as an image of the victim operated upon, as well as figures made of clay or wax.
It is said to be of a yellow colour, and to shine in the night like a candle; which is just what is said of the mandrake in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the tenth or eleventh century.
The true mandrake is a gruesome herb, which was held in superstitious awe by the Greeks and the Romans.
The popular herbal drink known as Hop Bitters is said to owe many of its supposed virtues to the bryony root, substituted for the mandrake which it is alleged to contain.
From earliest times, in the East, a notion prevailed that the mandrakewould remove sterility.
Make into sixty pills with a little soft extract of mandrake or dandelion.
The writer of the herbal evidently fully accepted the mythical notion that the Mandrake was furnished with human limbs.
It is said to differ little from the original except in the fact that the French translator declined to believe the myth that the Mandrake root has human form.
Herbarium' of Apuleius as attending the uprooting of the Mandrake (p.
The legend of the human form of the Mandrake receives scant mercy at his hands.
As is usually the case in the older herbals, the proper mode of uprooting the Mandrake is described with much gusto.
Turner was, however, by no means the first to dispute the Mandrake superstition; in the Grete Herball of 1526 it is definitely refuted, and it is ignored in some works that are of even earlier date.
We have already referred to the imaginative portrait of the Mandrake (Plate V).
When this was thoroughly mixed he put it in the water in the pot, adding to it a portion of a mandrake root, a live snake, two live toads in linen bags, and a fungus.
At the foot of the gibbet the mandrake springs; Just where the creaking carcase swings; Some have thought it engendered From the fat that drops from the bones of the dead; Some have thought it a human thing; But this is a vain imagining.
Whoso gathereth the mandrake shall surely die; Blood for blood is his destiny.
The dying dog refers to the popular belief, given by Josephus, as to the manner in which the mandrake was gathered.
Billy Brackett had come up the Illinois side of the river by rail and stage, and had been ferried across to Mandrake just in time to be attracted by the incipient riot aboard the Whatnot.
Mandrake Park, sitting on the right-hand side of the smoker where the setting sun would not dazzle on his newspaper.
Mr. Veal lived in the exclusive and clean-shaven suburb of Mandrake Park, where he had built a stucco mansion with Venetian blinds, a croquet lawn with a revolving spray on it on hot days, and a mansard butler.
Once again his word was obeyed; and many a Parisian threw away his mandrake in horror, albeit he had bought it dear from some old wife who knew more than was good for her.
Witches made much of them; and those who believed that the Maid was a witch accused her of carrying a mandrake on her person.
The good Brother likewise caused to be burnt the mandrake roots which many folk kept in their houses.
The tree, the spring, and the mandrake caused the inhabitants of Domremy to be suspected of holding converse with evil spirits.
It was at a time when high prices were paid for charms, philtres, mandrake mannikins; and the witchcraft excitement was not yet advanced enough to render dealing in such things perilous.
The fleshy, forked roots of a soporific plant issued in that vast Mandrake Mythology which has been the subject of many volumes, without being even yet fully explored.
Mandrake alum gave a certain impetus to the development of the homunculus idea and practice.
Their business was based on the great profits that were offered by the possession of a homunculus and that are equivalent to those of mandrake alum.
Amongst other mysterious attributes, we are told by old writers that the Mandrake has the power of emitting sounds, and that when it is pulled out of the ground, it utters dreadful shrieks and groans, as if possessed of sensibility.
It is generally believed that the Mandrake is the same plant which the ancient Hebrews called Dudaim; and that these people held it in the highest esteem in Jacob's time is evident from the notice in Genesis (xxx.
Another name bestowed by the Greeks upon the Mandrake was that of Circeium, derived from Circe, the weird daughter of Sol and Perseis, celebrated for her witchcraft and knowledge of magic and venomous herbs.
In an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the tenth or eleventh century, the Mandrake is said to shine in the night like a candle.
The Chinese physicians assert that the Mandrake has the faculty of renovating exhausted constitutions.
The Mandrake is one of the most celebrated of magical plants, but for an enumeration of its manifold mystic powers readers must be referred to the description given in Part II.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "mandrake" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
