Mandrake (only in the plur. D^^tl^'^, dudaini', from 1^^, to be hot, from their amatory properties; whence the sing. ''^I^, a j)ot or boiling vessel, hence a basket, Jer. xxiv, 1) occurs in Gen. xxx, 14-1(5 : " Reu- ben went out in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them home to his mother Leah. Then Kachel said to Leah, Ciive me of thy son's mandrakes f' "And Jacob came out of the held in tlie evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said. Thou must come in unto me, for surely I have liired thee with my son's mandrakes; and he lay with her that night." The only other passage is Cant, vii, 13 : " The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant plants." From the above pas- sages it is evident that the dudaim were collected in the fields, that they were tit for gathering in the -wheat har- vest in Mesopotamia, where the first occurrence took place ; that they were found in Palestine ; that they or the plants which yielded them diffused a peculiar and agreeable odor ; and that they were supposed to be pos- sessed of aphrodisiac powers, or of assisting in producing conception. It is possible that there is a connection between this plant and the love-charms (C^'ITH) which seem to have been worn by Oriental brides (Cant, i, 2, 4 ; iv, 10 ; vii, 12 ; comp. i, 12 ), like smelling-bottles (Isa. iii, 20, " tablets") ; perhaps these contained an odorifer- ous mandrake philter. From this it is manifest that there is little to guide us in determining what plant is alluded to at such early periods, especially as no similar name has been recognised in any of the cognate lan- guages. Hence interpreters have wasted much time and pains in endeavoring to ascertain what is intended bj^ the Hebrew word dudaim. Some translate it by "violet," others "lilies," "jasmins," "truffles or mush- rooms ;" and some think that the word means " flowers," or " tine Howers." Bochart, Calmet, and Sir Thomas Browne suppose the citron intended; Celsius ( Uierobot. i, 20 ; but see, on the contrary, Oedmann, p. 99 ) is per- suaded that it is the fruit of the lote-tree; Hillcr that cherries are spoken of; and Ludolf (Hist. ^Eth. i, 9, etc.) maintains that it is the fruit which the Syrians call mniiz (tliat is, the plantain), resembling in figure and taste the Indian fig; but the generality of interpreters and commentators understand mandrakes ( not the mel- on so called, "melo dudaim," but the mandragora) by dudaim. The ground upon which the mandragora has been preferred is that the most ancient Greek trans- lator interprets the Hebrew name in (ien, xxx, 14 by mandrake apples (/(T/Art pm'vpayopiot') ; and in the Song of Solomon by mandrakes, oi /lavcpaynpai. Sa- adias, Gnkelos, and the Syriac Version agree with the Greek translators. The first of these puts hiffach ; the two latter yabruchin, which names denote the same plant (Kosenmiiller, Bib. Bot. p. 130, and note ; Castelli, Lexicon, p. 1591). The earliest notice of /mvcpayopac is by Hippocrates, and the next by Theophrasfus (Hist. Plant, vi, 2). Both of these, C. Sprengel {Hist. Rei.
Herb, i, 38, 82) supposes, intend Atropa mandragora. Dioscorides (iv, 7G) notices three kinds : (1.) the female, which is supposed to be the Mandragoi-a autumnalis of Berloton ; (2.) the male, Mandragora vernalis of the same botanist (these two are, however, usually account- ed varieties of A tropa mandragora') ; (3.) a kind called morion. It has been inferred that this may be the same as the mandragora of Theophrastus, which, by some authors, has been supposed to be Atropa belladonna. To all of these Dioscorides ascribes narcotic properties, and says of the first that it is also called Circcea, because it appears to be a root which promotes venery. Pj'- thagoras named the mandragora anthropomorphon, and Theophrastus, among other qualities, mentions its sopo- rific powers, and also its tendency to excite to love. Its fruit was called love-apple, and Venus herself Man- dragorites. But it is not easy to decide whether the above all refer to the same plant or plants. (See Lu- cian, Tim. p. 2; Pliny, xxv, 94; Apulaji, Asin. x, 233, Bip. ; Schol. at Plat. Rep. vi, 411, tom. v. Lips.; Philo, Opp>. ii, 478.) Persian authors on materia medica give 7nadragoras as a synonyme for yebruk, or yubruz, which is said to be the root of a plant of which the fruit is called lufach. This, there is little doubt, must be the above A t>-opa mandragora, as the Arabs usually refer only to the plants of Dioscorides, and on this occasion they quote him as well as Galen, and ascribe narcotic properties to both the root and tlie fruit. D'Herbelot (Bibl. Orient, i, 72) details some of the superstitious opinions respecting this plant, which originated in the East, but which continued for a long time to be retailed by authors in Europe. (See Schubert, iii, 116; Schulz. Leit.x, 197 ; Burckhardt, i, 441.) By the Arabs it is said to be called tufuh al-sheit an, or dexiVs apple, on account of its power to excite voluptuousness. If we look to the works of more modern authors, we find a continuance of the same statements. Thus Mariti, in his Travels (ii, 195 ), says that the Arabs called the mandrake plant ya- brochak, which is, no doubt, the same name as given above. "At the village of St, John, in the mountains, about six miles south-v. est from Jerusalem, this plant is found at present, as well as in Tuscany. It grows low, like lettuce, to which its leaves have a strong resem- blance, except that they have a dark-green color. The flowers are purple, and the root is for the most part forked. The fruit, when ripe, in the beginning of May, is of the size and color of a small apple, exceedingly ruddj', and of a most agreeable odor; our guide thought us fools for suspecting it to be unwholesome. He ate it freely himself, and it is generally valued by the inhab- itants as exhilarating to their spirits and a provocative to venerj-." Maundrell {Trav. p. 83) was informed by the chief priest of the Samaritans that it was still noted for its genial virtues. Hasselquist also seems inclined to consider it the dudaim, for, when at Nazareth, he says {Trai'.i\.\8'd), "What I found most remarkable in their villages was the great quantity of mandrakes that grew in a vale below it. The fruit was now (May 16) ripe. From the season in which this mandrake blossoms and ripens its fruit, one might form a conjecture that it is Rachel's dudaim. These were brought her in the wheat harvest, Avhich in Galilee is in the month of May, about this time, and the mandrake was now in fruit." — Kitfo. Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, ii, 380) found mandrakes ripe on the lower ranges of Lebanon and Hermon to- wards the end of April. On the 15th of May, Schulz also found mandrakes on Mount Tabor, which, as he says, " have a delightful scent, and whose taste is equal- ly agreeable, although not to every body. They are almost globular, and yellow like oranges, and about two and a quarter inches in diameter. This fruit grows on a shrub resembling the mallow ; and the fruit lies about the stem, as it were about the root, after such a manner that a single shrul) may have six to ten fruits, of which the color is so beautiful tliat no orange equals its brill- iancy." This fruit, which a recent traveller describes as of an " insipid, sickish taste," is by the Arabs of other