Mandrel

“ Therefore, if you wish to pull up a mandrake, the correct course to pursue is as follows: Tie a dog to the plant by its tail, and then whip the dog. It will pull up the mandrake, and then die in frightful agony! ”

“ So you see that altogether a grown-up male mandrill is a very odd-looking creature.
The female mandrill has much smaller swellings on her face. They are dull blue in color, without any lines of either purple or scarlet.
Almost all monkeys are subject at times to terrible fits of passion, but the mandrill seems to be the worst tempered of all. Fancy an animal dying simply from rage! It sounds impossible, yet the mandrill has been known to do so. And the natives of the countries in which it lives are quite as much afraid of it as they are of a lion. ”

“ In size the male mandrill may be compared to a short-bodied mastiff, while in strength and ferocity it has few equals, so that it is rightly dreaded by all the natives of West Africa. The female is a much smaller and much less powerful animal.
The mandrill, which is one of the shyest of all apes, inhabits the rocky parts of mountain forests in the Gold Coast, Guinea, and the adjacent districts of West Africa. Its food consists of fruits, bulbous plants, grass, and various other herbage, birds’ eggs, and all small animals that it can capture. ”

“ MANDRAKE, or Atropa mandragora, L. an exotic plant, growing in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Levant: it is propagated by seeds, and treated in a similar manner with the more tender exotic plants.—According to Bechstein, the carrot-like root of the Mandrake, in its native climate, penetrates from three to four feet deep into the soil, where it remains sound for fifty years.—The plant is divided into male and female, the vegetation and growth of which are alike in both; though the leaves, roots, and seeds of the latter are longer, narrower, and of a darker colour than those of the male. ”

“ The mandrake, like the moly, the magical herb of the Odyssey, is ‘hard for men to dig.’ 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. Then before sunrise, on a Friday, the amateur goes out with a dog, ‘all black,’ makes three crosses round the mandrake, loosens the soil about the root, ties the root to the dog’s tail, and offers the beast a piece of bread. The dog runs at the bread, drags out the mandrake root, and falls dead, killed by the horrible yell of the plant. ”

“ In the mandrill, which is the most brilliantly coloured of all mammals, the ridges are vermilion and cobalt, while the callosities on the buttocks are of equal brilliance; but in the drill, which has white ear-tufts, the colouring is more sombre (see Baboon and Mandrill) . ”

“ I shall next describe a strange sort of animal, called by the white men in this country Mandrill, [7] but why it is so called I know not, nor did I ever hear the name before, neither can those who call them so tell, except it be for their near resemblance of a human creature, though nothing at all like an Ape. Their bodies, when full grown, are as big in circumference as a middle-sized man's—their legs much shorter, and their feet larger; their arms and hands in proportion. The head is monstrously big, and the face broad and flat, without any other hair but the eyebrows ”

“ They are nearly omnivorous, but fruits and insects form their chief food. When the Mandrill is in any way excited, the brilliantly-coloured naked parts of the skin are said to become still more vividly coloured. ”

“ As a garden plant, the Mandrake is often grown, but more for its curiosity than its beauty; the leaves appear early in the spring, followed very soon by its dull and almost inconspicuous flowers, and then by its Apple-like fruit. ”

“ You must take care to be provided beforehand with a scarlet mantle, which conceal under your garment, and wait until the bird returns with the spring-root in its mouth. No sooner will the bird touch the wooden plug with this wondrous plant, than it will immediately fly out, as a cork does from one of mine host’s barrels. Lose no time then, but instantly spread the mantle under the tree. Terrified at the sight, supposing it to be fire, the woodpecker will let fall the root. ”

“ Old males are remarkable for the ferocity of their disposition, as well as for other disagreeable qualities; but when young they can easily be tamed. Like baboons, mandrills appear to be indiscriminate eaters, feeding on fruit, roots, reptiles, insects, scorpions, &c., and inhabit open rocky ground rather than forests. Not much is known of the mandrill’s habits in the wild state, nor of the exact limits of its geographical distribution ”

“ Again, the root has a human shape. ‘If a hereditary thief who has preserved his chastity gets hung,’ the broad-leafed, yellow-flowered mandrake grows up, in his likeness, beneath the gallows from which he is suspended. ”

“ Early in the spring the snowdrops and crocuses peep out, and then they go away.
We do not think much about it, for other flowers have come in their places.
Spring beauties and bloodroots shine in the woods, and then they go away. But the mandrakes have come with their umbrella leaves, and then the columbines and roses ask for a welcome.
After awhile we can find no more mandrakes and columbines, only yellow apples and brown seed-pods. ”

“ The most vividly coloured species of all is the Mandrill, which, in this matter exceeds all other living Mammals. The face, in the male, is produced forward to give the head a dog-like shape, while the whole of the upper surface of the muzzle has been transformed into a swollen, deeply fluted mass by the excessive inflation of the underlying bone. The bare skin covering this is of a brilliant cobalt blue, with lines of violet in the furrows, while the nose is of a bright scarlet. The naked skin of the buttocks, and the genital organs, are suffused with brilliant tints of scarlet and blue. ”

“ Mantel, masculine, ‘cloak, mantle,’ from the equivalent Middle High German mantel, mandel, Old High German mantal, mandal, masculine; on account of the non-permutation of t to z the word cannot be cognate with Middle English mantel, English mantle, Old Icelandic mǫttul, masculine, ‘cloak,’ and hence it is not derived from the same root as Greek μανδύας, ‘upper garment.’ The Teutonic cognates are more probably based on Latin mantellum, from which Italian mantello and French manteau are derived. ”

“ When captured young, the mandrill is sufficiently amiable, and for a time it remains tame and amenable; but, in the case of males at any rate, in the course of a few years its naturally evil disposition asserts itself, and it soon becomes one of the most vicious and disgusting brutes in creation. ”

“ I have moved the household to my suburb, and this is a lament de profundis.
The legendary mandrake is a gurgling infant to the way my books cried upon removing. They not only screamed; they sobbed and quivered like broken souls to be dislodged from their place that has known and loved them so well and so long. Every object in the flat was a whole plantation of mandrakes. ”

“ Books direct (and men naturally and innocently obey) , the putting of manure to young trees. We have no doubt that the time will come, when manures will be so thoroughly analyzed and classified, that we can employ them just as a carpenter does his tools, or the farmer his implements; if we wish wood, we shall apply certain ingredients to the soil and have it; [Pg 316] if we wish fruit, we shall have at hand manures which promote the fruiting properties of the tree; if we want seed, we shall have manures for it. ”

“ But of the mandrake, or mandragoras, Gerarde says: 'There hath been many ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives, or some runagate surgeons, or physickemongers, I know not; but sure some one or more that sought to make themselves famous or skillful above others were the first brochers of the errour'—that the root resembles a man. ”

“ The dangers attending the plucking of mandrakes are shrewdly disposed of by Sir Thomas Browne with the remark that it is 'derogatory unto the Providence of God ... to impose so destructive a quality on any plant ... whose parts are usefull unto many.' The same author mentions the superstition that the mandrake grows under gallows, fructified by the decaying bodies of criminals, that it grows both male and female, and that it shrieks upon eradication. ”

“ In the Middle Ages, the Mandrake was a magical plant which was reputed to shine like a candle at night and thrive particularly well near the gallows. When pulled from the earth, it uttered uncanny shrieks, and according to Shakespeare “living mortals hearing them ran mad.” ”

“ The mandrake also is the giver of life, of fertility to women, of safety in childbirth; and like the cowry and the pearl it exerts these magical influences only if it be worn in contact with the wearer's skin. [290] But the most definite indication of the mandrake's homology with the pearl is provided by the legend that "it shines by night". Some scholars, [291] both ancient and modern, have attempted to rationalize this tradition by interpreting it as a reference to the glow-worms that settle on the plant! ”

“ In other words, the tree of life had the power of love-provoking like the mandrake. In Henderson's "Celtic Dragon Myth" (p. xl) we read: "The berries for which she [Medb] craved were from the Tree of Life, the food of the gods, the eating of which by mortals brings death," and further: "The berries of the rowan tree are the berries of the gods" (p. xliii) . I have already suggested the homology between these red berries, the mandrake, and the red ochre of Hathor's elixir. Thus we have another suggestion of the identity of the tree of paradise and the mandrake. ”

“ And Lord Bacon, speaking of the mandrake, says: "Some plants there are, but rare, that have a mossie or downy root, and likewise that have a number of threads, like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and impostours make an ugly image, giving it the form of a face at the top of the root, and leave those strings to make a broad beard down to the foot." ”

“ And when they go abroad, they use a white mantle of lawn or cambric, rounded with a broad lace, which some put over their heads, the breadth reaching only to their middles behind, that their girdle and ribbons may be seen, and the two ends before reaching to the ground almost; others cast their mantles only upon their shoulders; and swaggerers like to cast the one end over the left shoulder, while with their right arm they support the lower part of it, more like roaring boys than honest civil maids. ”

“ A black mantle, strewn over with golden stars, now enveloped the goddess from head to foot, leaving visible only her silvern feet, entwined by a serpent, as well as, over her head, a silvern disc, confined within the horns of a cow. ”

“ I should imagine it to be a hen bird, as the mantle is still of a very sombre hue. On each occasion its movements have been such as denote complete satisfaction with its surroundings, and a very high distaste for man's proximity. The first time I saw it I made enquiries among the men at work on the grounds as to whether they had noticed the bird at all, but with no result. ”

“ In the old woods she lays her hand upon the myriad branches, and on the softening ground beneath which lie the buried roots. From every bough she calleth forth the tender buds, and ere long she spreads with kindly hands a rich, green mantle over all the forests. ”

“ A lean, grey little man, clad in a quaintly barred and mottled mantle, woven by his own hands from some soft silky material, and a close-fitting brown peaked cap on his head with one barred feather in it for ornament, and a small wizened grey face with a thin sharp nose, puckered lips, and a pair of round, brilliant, startled eyes. ”

“ The root of the mandrake, a plant with a tap-root, frequently forked, as we see that of the radish, and covered with fibrous rootlets, was easily convertible into a grotesque likeness of the human form. ”

“ In ancient examples there is great variety and freedom. Where the crest is the head of a griffon or bird the feathering of the neck will be carried on to cover the mantle. Other mantles will be powdered with badges or with charges from the shield, others checkered, barred or paled. More than thirty of the mantles enamelled on the stall-plates of the medieval Garter-knights are of red with an ermine lining, tinctures which in most cases have no reference to the shields below them. ”

“ You have two rows of cabbage in the garden, and you water one row, and the plants grow bigger and better. Is water manure? You cover a plant with a hand-glass, and it grows bigger and better. Is a hand-glass manure? You shelter a few plants, and they grow bigger and better. Is shelter manure? You put some pure sand round a few plants, and they grow bigger and better. Is pure sand manure? I think we shall have to reject the Deacon’s definition. ”

“ It is of no use whatever to think of getting things to grow without manure. This is the life and soul of all garden operations. Almost everything can be converted into manure. The grass from lawns, fallen leaves, weeds, and all vegetable matter, afford good light [Pg 92] manure. Strong manures are prepared from horse, cow, sheep, and goat dung. The dung of fowls and rabbits is also most excellent; and where fowls or rabbits are kept, their dung should be preserved with great care, and put by itself into a rotting-pit, or into a tank, and kept wet. ”