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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
269
Speaking
of
the
mandrake,
we
may
note
that
in
France
it
was
regarded
as
a
species
of
elf,
and
nicknamed
main
de
gloire;
in
connection
with
which
Saint-Palaye
describes
a
curious
superstition:--
"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;
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,
and
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
gloire
returned
on
the
morrow
double
what
he
had
received
the
previous
day.
If
one
paid
cash
for
the
main
de
gloire's
food
one
day,
he
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
fact
that
he
had
found
one
of
these
mains
de
gloire."
Many
other
equally
curious
stories
are
told
of
the
mandrake,
a
plant
which,
for
its
mystic
qualities,
has
perhaps
been
unsurpassed;
and
it
is
no
wonder
that
it
was
a
dread
object
of
superstitious
fear,
for
Moore,
speaking
of
its
appearance,
says:--
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