The mandoline is a derivative of the mandola or mandore, which was smaller than the lute but larger than either of the mandolines described above. It had from four to eight courses of strings, the chanterelle or melody string being single and the others in pairs of unisons. The mandore is mentioned in Robert de Calenson (12th cent.), and elsewhere; it may be identified with the pandura.
The Neapolitan mandoline was scored for by Mozart as an accompaniment to the celebrated serenade in Don Juan. Beethoven wrote for it a Sonatina per il mandolino, dedicated to his friend Krumpholz. Grétry and Paisiello also introduced it into their operas as an accompaniment to serenades.
The earliest method for the mandoline was published by Fouchette in Paris in 1770. The earliest mention of the instrument in England, in 1707, is quoted in Ashton’s Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne: “Signior Conti will play . . . . on the mandoline, an instrument not known yet.” (K. S.)
MANDRAKE (Mandragora officinarum), a plant of the potato
family, order Solanaceae, a native of the Mediterranean region.
It has a short stem bearing a tuft of ovate leaves, with a thick
fleshy and often forked root. The flowers are solitary, with a
purple bell-shaped corolla; the fruit is a fleshy orange-coloured
berry. The mandrake has been long known for its poisonous
properties and supposed virtues. It acts as an emetic, purgative
and narcotic, and was much esteemed in old times; but, except
in Africa and the East, where it is used as a narcotic and antispasmodic,
it has fallen into well-earned disrepute. In ancient
times, according to Isidorus and Serapion, it was used as a
narcotic to diminish sensibility under surgical operations, and
the same use is mentioned by Ḳazwīnī, i. 297, s.v. “Luffāḥ.”
Shakespeare more than once alludes to this plant, as in Antony
and Cleopatra: “Give me to drink mandragora.” The notion
that the plant shrieked when touched is alluded to in Romeo and
Juliet: “And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth, that
living mortals, hearing them, run mad.” The mandrake, often
growing like the lower limbs of a man, was supposed to have
other virtues, and was much used for love philtres, while the
fruit was supposed, and in the East is still supposed, to facilitate
pregnancy (Aug., C. Faust. xxii. 56; cf. Gen. xxx. 14,
where the Hebrew דּדּראֹם is undoubtedly the mandrake). Like
the mallow, the mandrake was potent in all kinds of enchantment
(see Maimonides in Chwolson, Ssabier, ii. 459). Dioscorides
identifies it with the κιρκαία, the root named after the enchantress
Circe. To it appears to apply the fable of the magical herb
Baaras, which cured demoniacs, and was procured at great risk
or by the death of a dog employed to drag it up, in Josephus
(B. J. vii. 6, § 3). The German name of the plant (Alraune;
O. H. G. Alrûna) indicates the prophetic power supposed to be
in little images (homunculi, Goldmännchen, Galgenmännchen)
made of this root which were cherished as oracles. The
possession of such roots was thought to ensure prosperity.
(See Du Cange, s.vv. “Mandragora” and Littré.)
Gerard in 1597 (Herball, p. 280) described male and female mandrakes, and Dioscorides also recognizes two such plants corresponding to the spring and autumn species (M. vernalis and M. officinarum respectively), differing in the colour of the foliage and shape of fruit.
MANDRILL (a name formed by the prefix “man” to the
word “drill,” which was used in ancient literature to denote
an ape, and is probably of West African origin), the common
title of the most hideous and most brilliantly coloured of all
the African monkeys collectively denominated baboons and
constituting the genus Papio. Together with the drill (q.v.),
the mandrill, Papio maimon, constitutes the subgenus Maimon,
which is exclusively West African in distribution, and characterized,
among other peculiarities, by the extreme shortness of
the tail, and the great development of the longitudinal bony
swellings, covered during life with naked skin, on the sides of
the muzzle. As a whole, the mandrill is characterized by heaviness
of body, stoutness and strength of limb, and exceeding
shortness of tail, which is a mere stump, not 2 in. long, and
usually carried erect. It is, moreover, remarkable for the
prominence of its brow-ridges, beneath which the small and
closely approximated eyes are deeply sunk; the immense size
of the canine teeth; and more especially for the extraordinarily
vivid colouring of some parts of the skin. The body generally
is covered with soft hair—light olive-brown above and silvery
grey beneath—and the chin is furnished underneath with a small
pointed yellow beard. The hair of the forehead and temples is
directed upwards so as to meet in a point on the crown, which
gives the head a triangular appearance. The ears are naked,
and bluish black. The hands and feet are naked, and black. A
large space around the greatly developed callosities on the
buttocks, as well as the upper part of the insides of the thighs,
is naked and of a crimson colour, shading off on the sides to
lilac or blue, which, depending upon injection of the superficial
blood-vessels, varies in intensity according to the condition of
the animal—increasing under excitement, fading during sickness,
and disappearing after death. It is, however, in the face that
the most remarkable disposition of vivid hues occurs, more resembling
those of a brilliantly coloured flower than what might
be expected in a mammal. The cheek-prominences are of an
intense blue, the effect of which is heightened by deeply sunk
longitudinal furrows of a darker tint, while the central line and
termination of the nose are bright scarlet. It is only to fully
adult males that this description applies. The female is of
much smaller size, and more slender; and, though the general
tone of the hairy parts of the body is the same, the prominences,
furrows, and colouring of the face are much less marked. The
young males have black faces.
Old males are remarkable for the ferocity of their disposition, as well as for other disagreeable qualities; but when young they can easily be tamed. Like baboons, mandrills appear to be indiscriminate eaters, feeding on fruit, roots, reptiles, insects, scorpions, &c., and inhabit open rocky ground rather than forests. Not much is known of the mandrill’s habits in the wild state, nor of the exact limits of its geographical distribution; the specimens brought to Europe coming from the west coast of tropical Africa, from Guinea to the Gaboon. (See also Primates.) (W. H. F.; R. L.*)
MANDU, or Mandogarh, a ruined city in the Dhar state of
Central India, the ancient capital of the Mahommedan kingdom
of Malwa. The city is situated at an elevation of 2079 ft. and
extends for 8 m. along the crest of the Vindhyan mountains.
It reached its greatest splendour in the 15th century under
Hoshang Shah (1405–1434). The circuit of the battlemented
wall is nearly 23 m., enclosing a large number of palaces, mosques
and other buildings. The oldest mosque dates from 1405; the
finest is the Jama Masjid or great mosque, a notable example
of Pathan architecture, founded by Hoshang Shah. The marble-domed
tomb of this ruler is also magnificent.
For a description and history of Mandu, see Sir James Campbell’s Gazetteer of Bombay, vol. i. part ii. (1896), and Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society (vol. xxi.).
MANDURIA, a city of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Lecce,
from which it is 27 m. W. by road (22 m. E. of Taranto), 270 ft.
above sea-level, and 8 m. N. of the coast. Pop. (1901), 12,199
(town); 13,190 (commune). It is close to the site of the ancient
Manduria, considerable remains of the defences of which can
still be seen; they consisted of a double line of wall built of
rectangular blocks of stone, without mortar, and with a broad
ditch in front. Some tombs with gold ornaments were found
in 1886 (L. Viola in Notizie degli Scavi, 1886, 100). It was an
important stronghold of the Messapii against Tarentum, and
Archidamus III., king of Sparta, fell beneath its walls in 338 B.C.,
while leading the army of the latter (Plut., Agis, 3, calls the place
Mandonion: see s.v. Archidamus). It revolted to Hannibal,
but was stormed by the Romans in 209 B.C. Pliny mentions
a spring here which never changed its level, and may still be
seen. The town was destroyed by the Saracens in the 10th
century; the inhabitants settled themselves on the site of the
present town, at first called Casalnuovo, which resumed the old
name in 1700. (T. As.)
MANDVI, a seaport of India, in the native state of Cutch,
within the Gujarat province of Bombay, 36 m. from Bhuj, and
182 m. by sea from Karachi. Pop. (1901), 24,683. It is a
weekly port of call for steamers of the British India line, vessels
