Abstract
WITH regard to Prof. Veth's exhaustive account of the mandrake (referred to in NATURE of April 11, p. 573), it may be useful to students of folklore to call their attention to the occurrence in the Chinese literature of a similar superstition, wherein Phytolacca acinosa (Shangluh) takes the place of Mandragora officinarum. Sie Tsai-Kang's: “Wu-tsah-tsu,” written about 1610 (Japanese edition, 1661, tome x. p. 41), contains the following passage:— “The Shang-luh grows on the ground beneath which dead man lies; hence its root is mostly shaped like a man.J… In a calm night when nobody is about, the collector, offering the owl's flesh roasted with oil, propitiates the spirit of the plant until ignes fatui crowd about the latter; then the root is dug out, brought home and prepared with magic paper for a week; thus it is made capable of speech. This plant is surnamed ‘Ye-hu’ (i.e. Night Cry) on account of its demoniacal nature.2 There are two varieties of it: the white one is used for medicine; the red one commands evil spirits, and kills men when it is internally taken by error.”
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MINAKATA, K. The Mandrake. Nature 51, 608 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051608b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051608b0
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