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human face in the roots. In Germany, since the time of the
Goths, the word alruna has borne the double meaning of witch and
Mandrake. Considering the roots to possess magical properties,
the Germans formed from them little idols, to which they gave the
name of Alrunen. These images were regularly habited every
day, and consulted as oracles; their repute becoming very great,
large numbers were manuiactured and sold in ca se s: in this
state they were brought oyer to this country during the reign of
Henry V I I I ., and met with a ready sale. Fraudulent dealers used
to replace the Mandrake-roots with those of the White Briony, cut
to the shape of men and women, and dried in a hot rand bath.
In France, under the names of Main de gloire or Maglore, the
Mandrake became a species of elf; and, till the eighteenth century,
there existed a wide-spread superstition among the peasantry con-
nedled therewith. Sainte-Palaye writes: “ When I asked a peasant
one day why he was gathering Mistletoe, he told me that at the
foot of the Oaks on which the Mistletoe grew, he had a Mandrake
{Main de gloire); that this Mandrake had lived in the earth from
whence the Mistletoe sprang; that he was a kind of mole; that
he who found him was obliged to give him food,—bread, meat,
or some other nourishment; and that he who had once given him
food was obliged to give it every day, and in the same quantity,
without which the Mandrake would assuredly cause the forgetful
one to die. Two of his countrymen, whom he named to me, had,
he said, lost their lives; but, as a recompense, this Main de gloive
returned on the morrow double what he had received the previous
day. I f one paid cash for the Main de gloive's food one day, one
would find double the amount the following; and so with anything
else. A certain countryman, whom he mentioned as still living,
and who had become very rich, was believed to have owed his
wealth to the fadl that he had found one of these Mains de gloire.”
The Chinese physicians assert that the Mandrake has the
faculty of renovating exhausted constitutions.
M A N G O .—The Indian mythologists relate that the daughter
of the Sun, persecuted by a wicked enchantress, plunged into a
pool, where she was transformed into a golden Lotus. The king
became enamoured of the beautiful fiower, so the enchantress burnt
it; but from its ashes rose the Mango {Mangifera Indica). Then the
king fell in love, first with the Mango-fiower, and next with the
fruit, which he ordered to be carefully preserved for his own use.
At last, just as the fruit was ripe, it fell from the bough, and out of
it issued the daughter of the Sun, whom the king, after having lost
and forgotten, now recognised as his former wife. The Indian
poets are never tired of singing the praises of the Mango, the
beauty of its fiowers, and the sweetness of its fruit. The Indian
Cupid Ktoiadeva is represented as having five arrows, each tipped
with the blossom of a flower which pierce the heart through one of
the five senses. A young maiden once plucked one of these blossoms,
and offered it to the god, saying :—
“ God of the bow, who with Spring’s choicest flowers
Dost point the five unerring shafts ; to thee
I dedicate this blossom ; let it serve
To barb thy truest arrow ; be its mark
Some youthful heart that pines to be beloved.”
Kamadeva accepted the offering, and tipped with the Mango-fiower
one of his darts, which, from that time, was known as the arrow
of love, and is the god’s favourite dart. Along with Sandalwood,
the wood of the Mango is used by the Hindus in burning their
dead. Among the Indian jugglers, the apparent producflion and
growth of the Mango-tree is a performance executed in such a
marvellous manner as to excite the astonishment of those who
have most determined to discover how the illusion is effecfted.
M A N N A .—Some naturalists consider that the Manna miraculously
provided for the sustenance of the Children of Israel in the
Desert was a species of Lichen—the Parmelia esculenta. Josephus,
however, describes it as a kind of dew which fell, like honey in
sweetness and pleasant taste, but like in its body to Bdellium,
one of the sweet spices, but in bigness equal to Coriander-seed.
The origin of the different species of Manna or sugary exudations
which cover certain trees, has at all times been a subjedt
of wonder, and for a long time it was thought that these saccharine
tears, which appear so quickly, were simply deposits from
the atmosphere. The Manna used in medicine is principally procured
from the flowering Ash {Fraxinus ornus), which, is cultivated
for the purpose in Sicily and Calabria ; the pundture of an insedt
of the cochineal family causes the sap to exude. The Manna of
Mount Sinai is drawn from the Tamarisk by pundture of the
coccus : it exudes in a thick syrup during the day, falls in drops,
congeals in the night, and is gathered in the cool of the morning.
The Larch-tree furnishes the Manna of Briançon. A sweet substance
resembling Manna exudes from the leaves of the Eucalyptus
resinifera, dries in the sun, and when the leaves are shaken by the
wind, falls like a shower of snow. In some countries, even herbs
are covered with an abundant sugary exudation similar to Manna.
Bruce observed this in Abyssinia. Matthiolus relates that in some
parts of Italy the Manna glues the grass of the meadows together
in such a manner as to impede the mowers at their work.-------To
dream of Manna denotes that you will be successful through life,
and overcome all troubles.
M A P L E .—The wood of the Maple {Acer) was considered by
Pliny to be, in point of elegance and firmness, next to the Citron
itself. The veined knobs of old Maples, known as the bruscum
and molluscum, were highly prized by the Romans, and of these
curiously-marked woods were made the famous Tigrine and Pan-
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