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 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.”

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 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 , 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 (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 .)

MANDU, or, 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 , while leading the army of the latter (Plut., Agis, 3, calls the place Mandonion: see s.v. ). It revolted to Hannibal, but was stormed by the Romans in 209 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.

 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