<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
<p class="center"><small>POISONS AND SUPERSTITION</small></p>
<p><span class="smcap">Among</span> the ignorant, poisons
have ever been closely associated
with superstition, and thus we
find in the dark ages, even
among the more civilized nations
of the West, a belief in the occult
concerning those things the
action of which they did not
understand. To most of the
poisonous herbs used by the
ancients certain curious superstitions
were attached. The
mandrake, in particular, excited
the greatest veneration on this
account. It is supposed this plant
is the same which the ancient
Hebrews called Dudaïm. That
these people held it in the highest
esteem in the days of Jacob is
evident from the notice of its
having been found by Reuben,
who carried it to his mother;
and the inducement which
tempted Leah to part with it
proves the value then set upon
this remarkable plant. It was
believed to possess the property
of making childless wives become
mothers. Mandrake was
among the more important drugs
employed by the ancients for
producing anæsthesia. Doses
of the wine made from the root
were administered before amputating
a limb or the application
of the hot iron cautery.
Pliny says: "Mandrake is taken
against serpents, and before
cutting and puncture, lest they
be felt. Sometimes the smell
is sufficient." According to
Apuleius, half an ounce of the
wine would make a person insensible
even to the pain of
amputation. Lyman states it
was this wine, "mingled with
myrrh," that was offered to the
Saviour on the Cross, it being
commonly given to those who
suffered death by crucifixion to
allay in some degree their terrible
agonies. In Shakespeare's time
mandrake still kept its place in
public estimation as a narcotic.
Thus we have Cleopatra asking
for the drug, that she may "sleep
out this great gap of time" while
her Antony is away; and Iago,
when his poison begins to work
in the mind of the Moor, exclaims—</p>
<div class="center">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div class="i0">"Not poppy, nor mandragora</div>
<div class="i0">Nor all the drowsy syrups of this world,</div>
<div class="i0">Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep."</div>
</div></div>
</div>
<p>Some of the old names applied<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</SPAN></span>
to the plant, such as semihomo
and anthropomorphon, refer to
the appearance of the root, while
the term "love-apples" applied
to the fruit relates to their
imaginary aphrodisiacal properties.
It is mentioned in the
Scriptures in connexion with
such episodes. Josephus states
"baaras" (supposed to be mandrake)
was capable of expelling
demons from those possessed.
Demosthenes, the Athenian orator,
is said to have compared his
lethargic hearers to those who
had eaten mandrake. Dioscorides
states that "a drachm of
mandragora taken in a draught,
or eaten in a cake, causes infatuation,
and takes away the
use of reason." The Greeks
bestowed on it the name of
"Circeium" derived from the
witch Circe. They believed that
when the mandrake was dragged
up from the earth, it gave a
dreadful shriek, and struck the
daring person dead who had had
the presumption to pull it up.
The method of obtaining it,
therefore, was by fastening the
plant to the tail of a dog, who
thus drew the root from the
ground. The shriek was supposed
to be due to an evil spirit
who dwelt in the plant. The
Romans also were very particular
in the manner in which they
obtained the root. Pliny tells
us that he who would undertake
this office should stand with his
back to the wind, and before
he begins to dig, make three
circles round the plant with the
point of a sword, and then
turning to the west proceed to
take it up. The small roots,
which are much twisted and
gnarled, sometimes bear a resemblance
to the form of man,
and this was turned to account
by some of the old German
doctors, who fashioned them into
rude images and sold them as
preventives of evil and danger.
They called them Abrunes.
These images were regularly
dressed every day and consulted
as oracles and were manufactured
in great numbers. They were
introduced into England in the
time of Henry VIII, and met
with ready purchasers. To increase
their value and importance,
the roots were said by
the vendors to be produced
from the flesh of criminals which
fell from the gibbet and that
they only grew in such situations.
Lord Bacon notices their use
in the following paragraph—"Some
plants there are, but rare,
that have a morsie or downie
root, and likewise that have a
number of threads like beards,
as mandrakes, whereof witches
and impostours make an ugly
image, giving it the form of a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</SPAN></span>
face at the top of the root, and
these strings to make a broad
beard down to the foot."
Madame de Genlis states that
"the mandrake roots should be
wrapped in a sheet, for that then
they will bring increasing good
luck." The plant is still used
medicinally in China, where it is
said to be largely taken by the
mandarins, who believe it will
give them increased intellectual
powers and prolong their lives.
From recent investigation the
activity of the mandrake root
is proved to be due to an alkaloid
called mandragorine.</p>
<p>The black hellebore, Melampus
root or Christmas rose, another
poisonous plant known to the
ancients, was believed to have
magical properties. It was
called after Melampus, a great
physician, who flourished at
Pylos, about one hundred years
after the time of Moses, or about
one thousand five hundred and
thirty years before the birth of
Christ. He is reputed to have
cured the daughters of Prœtus,
King of Argos, of mental derangement
with hellebore. Pliny
mentions that the daughters of
Prœtus were restored to their
senses by drinking the milk of
goats which had fed on hellebore.
Black hellebore root was used
by the ancients to purify their
homes and to hallow their dwellings,
and they believed that by
strewing it about it would drive
away evil spirits. This ceremony
was performed with great devotion,
and accompanied with
the singing of solemn hymns.
They also blessed their cattle in
the same manner with hellebore
to keep them free from spells of
the wicked. For these purposes
it was dug up with many religious
ceremonies—such as drawing a
circle round the plant with a
sword; then, turning to the east,
a humble prayer was finally
offered up by the devotee, to
Apollo and Aesculapius for leave
to dig up the root. The flight
of the eagle was particularly
attended to during the ceremony,
for when this bird approached
near the spot during
the celebration of the rite, it was
considered so ominous as to predict
the certain death of the
person who uprooted the plant
in the course of the year. Others
ate garlic previous to the rite,
which was supposed to counteract
the poisonous effluvia of the
plant. Dioscorides relates that
when Carneades, the Cyrenaic
philosopher, undertook to answer
the books of Zeno, he sharpened
his wit and quickened his spirit
by purging his head with
powdered hellebore. It is recorded
that the Gauls never
went to the chase without<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</SPAN></span>
rubbing the point of their
arrows with this herb, believing
that it rendered all the game
killed with them the more
tender. It is of this plant
Juvenal sarcastically observes:
"Misers need a double dose of
hellebore."</p>
<p>With several uncivilised
nations in Africa, the practice
of compelling persons accused of
crime or witchcraft to undergo
the ordeal of swallowing some
vegetable poison is still carried
on. For this purpose certain
tribes in Western Africa use
the Calabar bean, sometimes
called the ordeal bean, which
contains a powerful poisonous
principle, called Physostigmine.
It was customary, at one time,
in Old Calabar, and the mouth
of the Niger, where the plant
grows, to destroy it whenever
found, a few only being preserved
to supply seeds for judicial purposes,
and of these seeds the store
was kept in the custody of the
native chief. Witchcraft, indeed,
may be said to play the
chief part in the daily life of all
African natives, and to witchcraft
they attribute every ill that
befalls them. Two classes of
witchcraft are supposed to exist—the
one practised secretly by
evil-doers, and the other practised
by the witch doctors with
the view of <span class="err" title="original: destorying">destroying</span> the effects
of the former. Witch doctors
are, in fact, the greatest power
in the land; they hold the lives
of all in their hands, and are
daily employed to satisfy the
passions of their neighbours.
"According to native ideas,"
says one who has had a long
experience among the native
tribes, "death or sickness never
occurs through natural causes,
but is always the result of somebody's
act. Whenever any one
is accused of having practised
witchcraft, or of having committed
any other crime, Calabar
bean or Muavi is used to decided
the case. The taking of these is
the great trial by ordeal, and,
usually, except when the accuser
is a witch doctor, accused and
accuser have both to submit to
the test. Chiefs, however, may
appoint a deputy to undergo
the ordeal in their stead. Muavi
consists of a specially prepared
drug, usually made by scraping
the wood of a certain tree known
to the witch doctors; this is
mixed with water, and both
parties swallow the decoction.
In a very short time the drug
begins to act. Vomiting sets in,
followed by convulsions and
death. Of course, in most
cases the result depends on the
dose given. Sometimes both
accuser and accused are seized
with vomiting; in that case the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</SPAN></span>
natives say that the medicine
has been badly prepared, and the
operation is repeated. At other
times both die; in that case also
the medicine was no good, but
the trial cannot be renewed, as
may be readily understood.
When the guilt of one of the
parties has been established by
his death, his property is at once
looted, his wife and children
being killed. So great, however,
is the faith of the natives in the
infallibility of the Muavi test,
and they so fully believe that
in case of innocence they will
be proof against the deadly
effects of the drug, that they will
never hesitate to submit themselves
to the trial; in fact, they
will frequently volunteer to go
through it, and insist upon
taking muavi even when falsely
accused. From this account it
will be easily seen that the witch
doctor who prepares the muavi
can easily get rid of any person
he may wish. In some districts
the drug used for the trial, instead
of causing death, when it
has not acted as an emetic,
merely causes purging; but the
result is the same, as the man
is at once put to death." This is
probably due to a weaker decoction
of the drug having been
prepared. The same traveller
states, in many instances his
own men have offered to take
muavi in order to refute the
slightest charge. Trial by
ordeal, which still survives in the
Dark Continent, was practised
by other and more civilized
nations in the early Christian
era.</p>
<hr class="ruler" />
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</SPAN></span></p>
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