And Moore relates in verse another tradition—
“The phantom shapes—oh touch them not—
That appal the maiden’s sight,
Lurk in the fleshy Mandrake’s stem
That shrieks when plucked at night.”
These screams were so horrible and awe-inspiring, that Shakspeare tells us the effect was maddening—
“And shrieks like Mandrakes, torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, ran mad.”
One other terrible attribute of this ill-omened plant was its power, by its pestilential effects, severely to injure, if not, indeed, to strike with death, the person who had the hardihood to drag the root from its bed. To guard against these dangers, therefore, the surrounding soil was removed, and the plant securely fastened to the tail of a dog, which was then driven away, and thus pulled up the root. Columella, in his directions for the site of gardens, says they may be formed where
“The Mandrakes flowers