DUDAIM This word, in its plural form, only occurs in two places of Scripture, Genesis xxx. 14-16, and Canticles vii. 13, in both of which it is rendered by mandrakes. From the above passages it is evident that the diedaiin were collected in the fields, that they were fit for gather ing, in the wheat harvest in Mesopotamia, where the first occurrence took place ; that they were found in Palestine ; that they or the plants which yielded them diffused an odour, which Michaelis paraphrases, jam et somnifero odore, venerus mandragoras;' and that they were supposed to be possessed of aphrodisaic powers, or of assisting in producing conception.
From this it is manifest that there is little to guide us in determining what plant is alluded to at such early periods, especially as no similar name has been recognised in any of the cognate languages. Hence great diversities of opinion have been en tertained respecting the plant and produce in tended by the name dim/ann. These Dr. Harris has thus summed up : Interpreters have wasted much time and pains in endeavouring to ascertain what is intended by the Hebrew word eludaini. Some translate it by violet,' others ' lilies,"jas mins," truffles or mushrooms ;' and some think that the word means flowers,' or fine flowers.' Bochart, Calmet, and Sir Thomas Browne suppose the citron intended ; Celsius is persuaded that it is the fruit of the lote-tree ; Hiller that cherries are spoken of ; and Ludolf maintains that it is the fruit which the Syrians call mauz' (that is the plantain), resembling in figure and taste the Indian fig ; but the generality of interpreters and com mentators understand mandrakes, a species of melon, by dudaim.' Here, however, the author has confounded the melon cucumis dzeziaim' with the mandrake or mandragora, adopted by the generality of authors. The grounds upon which the mandragora has been preferred are, first, The most ancient Greek translator interprets the Hebrew name in Gen. xxx. 14, by mandrake apples (sipm ktaroperyopC.,v) ; and in the Song of Solomon, by
mandrakes, of Saadia's Onkelos and the Syriac version agree with the Greek translators.
The first of these puts W lafach ; the two latter yabruchin ; which names denote the same plant' (Rosenmiiller, Bib. Pot. p. r3o, and note). The earliest notice of gavapaydpas is by Hippocrates, and the next by Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. vi. 2). Both of these C. Sprengel (Hist. Rd Herb. i. 38, 82) supposes, intend atropa mandragora. Dioscorides notices three kinds : r. the female, which is supposed to be the mandragora autumnalis of Berloton ; 2. the male, mandragora vernalis of the same botanist (these two are, how ever, usually accounted varieties of atropa mandra gora); 3. a kind called ntorion. It has been I inferred that this may be the same as the mandra gora of Theophrastus, which, by some authors, has been supposed to be atropa belladonna. To all of these Dioscorides ascribes narcotic properties, and says of the first, that it is also called Circaa, because it appears to be a root which promotes venery. Pythagoras named the mandragora anthropomor phon, and Theophrastus, among other qualities, mentions its soporific powers, and also its tendency to excite to love. Its fruits were called apples of love, and Venus herself Mandragoiites. But it is not easy to decide whether the above all refer to the same plant or plants.
Persian authors on materia medica give man dragoras as a synonyme for • yebrookh, or yabrooz, which is said to be the root of a plant of which the fruit is This, there is little doubt, must be the above atropa mandra gora, as the Arabs usually refer only to the plants of Dioscorides, and, on this occasion, they quote him as well as Galen, and ascribe narcotic proper ties to both the root and the fruit. D'Herbelot, under the article Abrousanam,' details some of the superstitious opinions respecting this plant, which originated in the East, but which continued for a long time to be retailed by authors in Europe.