The Arabs and ancient Germans thought that a powerful spirit inhabited the plant, an idea derived, perhaps, from the fancied resemblance of the root to the human form. Ducagne has under Mandragore: “Pomi genus cuius mentio fit, Gen. xxx. 14. nostris etiam notis sub nomine _Mandragores_, quod pectore asseruatum sibi diuitiis acquirendis idoneum somniabunt.” And Littré quotes the following from an old chronicle of the thirteenth century: “Li dui compaignon [un couple d’éléphants] vont contre Orient près du paradis terreste, tant que la femelle trouve une herbe que on apele mandragore, si en manjue, et si atize tant son masle qu’il en manjue avec li, et maintenant eschaufe la volenté de chascun, et s’entrejoignent à envers et engendrent un filz sanz plus.” In the _Commentaria ad Historiam Caroli VI et VII_ it is related that several mandrakes found in the possession of Frère Richard, a Cordelier, were seized and burned as savouring of witchcraft. It seems certain that the teraphim, which Rachel stole from her father (Genesis xxxi, 19, and 31-35), and which when he was in pursuit she concealed by a subtle trick, were used for purposes of divination. From the relation of the incident it is obvious that they were regarded of immense value—he who had conveyed them away was, if found, to die the death—and invested with a mysterious sanctity. Centuries later, during the period of drastic reform, King Josias (639-608 B.C.) would no longer tolerate them: “Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images [teraphim], and the idols, and all abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem did Josiah put away” (2 Kings xxiii. 24. A.V.). The Vulgate has: “Sed et pythones, et hariolos, et figuras idolorum, et immunditias, et abominationes, quæ fuerant in terra Juda et Jerusalem, abstulit Josias.” In Ezechiel xxi. 21, Esarhaddon is said to have divined by teraphim as well as by belomancy; and in Zacharias (x. 2) the teraphim are stated on occasion to have deceived their inquirers, “simulacra locuta sunt inutile,” “the idols have spoken vanity.” Notwithstanding this it is obvious from Osee (Hosea) iii. 4, that divination by teraphim was sometimes permitted: “Dies multos sedebunt filii Israel sine rege, et sine principe, et sine sacrificio, et sine altari, et sine ephod, et sine teraphim.” “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.”