t the enemy sleep, and lead him on the
wrong track, that he may not follow us until we have safely escaped.'

Another sort of shrub is called abib. Herdsmen, especially, carry
pieces of its wood as charms, and if cattle or sheep have gone astray,
they burn a piece of it in the fire, that the wild animals may not
destroy them. And they believe that the cattle remain safe until they
can be found the next morning.

Schweinfurth found the same belief in magic herbs and roots among the
Bongoes and Niam Niams in 'The Heart of Africa.' The Bongoes believe,
like the Homeric Greeks, that 'certain roots ward off the evil influences
of spirits.' Like the German amateurs of the mandrake, they assert that
'there is no other resource for obtaining communication with spirits,
except by means of certain roots' (i. 306).

Our position is that the English magical potato, the German mandrake, the
Greek moly, are all survivals from a condition of mind like that in which
the Hottentots still pray to roots.

Now that we have brought mandragora and moly into connection with the
ordinary magical superstitions of savage peoples, let us see what is made
of the subject by another method. Mr. R. Brown, the learned and
industrious author of 'The Great Dionysiak Myth,' has investigated the
traditions about the Homeric moly. He first {151} 'turns to Aryan
philology.' Many guesses at the etymology of 'moly' have been made.
Curtius suggests [Greek], akin to [Greek], 'soft.' This does not suit
Mr. Brown, who, to begin with, is persuaded that the herb is not a
magical herb, sans phrase, like those which the Hottentots use, but that
the basis of the myth 'is simply the effect of night upon the world of
day.' Now, as moly is a name in use among the gods, Mr. Brown thinks 'we
may fairly examine the hypothesis of a foreign origin of the term.'
Anyone who holds that certain Greek gods were borrowed from abroad, may
be allowed to believe that the gods used foreign words, and, as Mr. Brown
points out, there are foreign elements in various Homeric names of
imported articles, peoples, persons, and so forth. Where, then, is a
foreign word like moly, which might have reached Homer? By a long
process of research, Mr. Brown finds his word in ancient 'Akkadian.' From
Professor Sayce he borrows a reference to Apuleius Barbarus, about whose
life nothing is known, and whose date is vague. Apuleius Barbarus may
have lived about four centu