the spirits of the wicked, which enter into men that are alive and
kill them, unless they can obtain some help against them'; and the root
was esteemed a useful stimulant, although in Baaras, at any rate, it
seems to have lost its reputation as a love-philtre. It is noteworthy
that Josephus also tells how Solomon had great skill in enchantments,
and cast out devils by means of this root--an accomplishment he is said
to have learned from some of the numerous foreign ladies with whom he
surrounded himself.

Now, it is interesting to turn from the old Jewish historian to the old
English herbalist, Gerarde, who in 1597 wrote in his Herball pointing
out how, by 'the corruption of time and the errour of some,' mandragora
has been mistaken for what he calls Circaea, or Enchanter's Nightshade.
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. 'They
add further,' he says, 'that it is never, or very seldome, to be found
growing naturally, but under a gallowes, where the matter that hath
fallen from the dead body hath given it the shape of a man, and the
matter of a woman the substance of a female plant, with many other such
doltish dreames. The fable further affirms that he who would take up a
plant thereof ... he should surely die in short space after.'

This is clearly Josephus's 'root of Baaras' over again. Gerarde further
holds it to be the identical mandragoras of the Greeks, and called
Circaea because it was used by Circe for love-potions and enchantments.
If this be so, then what was the 'moly' given to Odysseus by Hermes
wherewith to counteract the charms of Circe? Was it a totally different
plant, or was it merely the same applied on the homoeopathic principle?
Mr. Andrew Lang thinks they cannot be the same, because the 'moly' is
described by Homer as having a black root and a white flower, while the
mandragoras is described by Pliny as having a yellow flower and white,
fleshy roots. But we know that Homer is somewhat confusing in the matter
of colours, and it is possible that various shades of the purplish
flower of the true mandrake might appear to one observer as white, and
to another as yellow. Upon the whole, the p