MANDLA

mandla, a town and district of british india, in the jubbulpore division of the central provinces. the town is on the river nerbudda, 1787 ft. above the sea. it has a manufacture of bell-metal vessels. pop. (1901), 5054. the district of mandla, among the satpura hills, has an area of 5054 sq. m. it consists of a wild highland region, broken up by the valleys of numerous rivers and streams. the nerbudda flows through the centre of the district, receiving several tributaries which take their rise in the maikal hills, a range densely clothed with _sal_ forest, and forming part of the great watershed between eastern and western india. the loftiest mountain is chauradadar, about 3400 ft. high. tigers abound, and the proportion of deaths caused by wild animals is greater than in any other district of the central provinces. the magnificent _sal_ forests which formerly clothed the highlands have suffered greatly from the nomadic system of cultivation practised by the hill tribes, who burned the wood and sowed their crops in the ashes; but measures have been taken to prevent further damage. the population in 1901 was 318,400, showing a decrease of 6.5% in the decade, due to famine. the aboriginal or hill tribes are more numerous in mandla than in any other district of the central provinces, particularly the gonds. the principal crops are rice, wheat, other food grains, pulse and oilseeds. there is a little manufacture of country cloth. a branch of the bengal-nagpur railway touches the south-western border of the district. mandla suffered most severely from the famine of 1896-1897, partly owing to its inaccessibility, and partly from the shy habits of the aboriginal tribes. the registered death-rate in 1907 was as high as 96 per thousand. mandoline (fr. _mandoline_; ger. _mandoline_; it. _mandolina_), the treble member of the lute family, and therefore a stringed instrument of great antiquity. the mandoline is classified amongst the stringed instruments having a vaulted back, which is more accentuated than even that of the lute. the mandoline is strung with steel and brass wire strings. there are two varieties of mandolines, both italian: (1) the _neapolitan_, 2 ft. long, which is the best known, and has four courses of pairs of unisons tuned like the violin in fifths; (2) the _milanese_, which is slightly larger and has five or six courses of pairs of unisons. the neck is covered by a finger-board, on which are distributed the twelve or more frets which form nuts at the correct points under the strings on which the fingers must press to obtain the chromatic semitones of the scale. the strings are twanged by means of a plectrum or pick, held between the thumb and first finger of the right hand. in order to strike a string the pick is given a gliding motion over the string combined with a _down_ or an _up_ movement, respectively indicated by signs over the notes. in order to sustain notes on the mandoline the effect known as _tremolo_ is employed; it is produced by means of a double movement of the pick up and down over a pair of strings. 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. gretry 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 anti-spasmodic, 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 kazwini, i. 297, s.v. "luffah" 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 [hebrew: dadarom] 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 [greek: kirkaia], 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. _alruna_) indicates the prophetic power supposed to be in little images (homunculi, goldmannchen, galgenmannchen) 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 littre.) 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.*)