* A.M. 2256. B.C. 1748. mandrakes.
The mandrake may be the Hebrew {dudaim:} it is so rendered by
all the ancient versions, and is a species of melon, of an
agreeable odour. Hasselquist, speaking of Nazareth in
Galilee, says, "What I found most remarkable at this village
was the great number of mandrakes which grew in a vale below
it. I had not the pleasure of seeing this plant in blossom,
the fruit now (May 5th, O. S.) hanging ripe on the stem, which
lay withered on the ground. From the season in which this
mandrake blossoms and ripens fruit, one might form a
conjecture that it was Rachel's {dudaim.} These were brought
her in the wheat harvest, which in Galilee is in the month of
May, about this time, and the mandrake was now in fruit." The
Abbee Mariti describes it as growing "low like a lettuce, to
which its leaves have a great resemblance, except that they
have a dark green colour. The flowers are purple, and the
root is for the most part forked. The fruit, when ripe in the
beginning of May, is of the size and colour of a small apple,
exceedingly ruddy, and of a most agreeable odour. Our guide
thought us fools for suspecting it to be unwholesome."
So 7:13
* Give me.
25:30
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