Hanns Heinz Ewers Alraune by Joe Bandel Read Free Book Online Page A

furtively squeeze one of her firm breasts. Then he gave
her some wine to drink, spoke to her, lightly in her ear.
    The Hussar lieutenant stooped, picked up the
thing that had caused the damage, raised it high and looked at it
from all sides.
    There were all kinds of remarkable things
hanging on the wall. There was a Kaneka Idol, half male and half
female, colorfully painted with yellow and red stripes. Two old
heavy and deformed riding boots hung there complete with impressive
Spanish spurs. There were all sorts of rusty weapons as well
    On the gray wall was also pressed the
Doctorate Diploma of some old Gontram from a Jesuit College in
Seville. Near it hung a wonderful ivory crucifix inlaid with gold.
On the other side was a large heavy Buddhist cross with a rose in
the center carved out of green Jade. Right above that you could see
the large tear in the wallpaper where a nail had torn its way out
of the brittle plaster.
    It was a brown dusty thing made of rock hard
wooden root. It looked like an ancient wrinkled man.
    “Oh, it’s our alraune!” Frau Gontram said.
“It’s just as well that it fell on Sophie, she has a hard
skull!–When Wölfchen was born I gave that disgusting manikin to
him. I was certain he would be able to break it to pieces but he
couldn’t.”
    The Legal Councilor explained, “This has been
in our family for over two hundred years now. It has done this once
before. My grandfather told us that once in the night it sprang off
the wall and fell on his head–He was completely drunk when it
happened though–He always liked having a few drops to drink.”
    “What is it really?” the Hussar lieutenant
asked.
    “Well, it brings gold into the house,”
answered Herr Gontram. “It is an old legend–Manasse can tell you
all about it–Come over here, Herr Colleague, tell us, Herr
History–What is the legend of the alraune?”
    But the little attorney didn’t want to, “Why?
Everyone knows it already!”
    “No one knows it, Herr Attorney,” the
lieutenant cried at him. “No one. Your learning greatly overshadows
that of modern education.”
    “So tell us, Manasse,” said Frau Gontram. “I
always wanted to know what that ugly thing was good for.”
    He began. He spoke dryly, matter of factly,
as if he were reading some piece out of a book. He spoke unhurried,
scarcely raising his voice while swinging the manikin root back and
forth in his right hand like a baton.

    “Alraune, albraune, mandragora–also called
mandrake–mandragora is its official name, a plant belonging to the
Nightshade family. It is found around the Mediterranean, Southeast
Europe and Asia up to the Himalayas. Its leaves and flowers contain
a narcotic that was used in ancient times as a sleeping potion and
during operations at the illustrious medical college in Salerno,
Italy. The leaves were smoked and the fruit made into a love
potion. It stimulates lust and increases potency. The plant is
named Dudaim in the Old Testament where Jacob used it to increase
Labaan’s flock of sheep.
    The root plays the leading role in the saga
of the alraune because of its strange resemblance to an old male or
female figurine. It was mentioned by Pythagoras and already in his
time believed capable of making a person invisible. It is used for
magick or the opposite, as a talisman against witchcraft.
    The German alraune story began in the early
Middle Ages in connection with the crusades. Known criminals were
hung stark naked from a gallows at a crossroads. At the moment
their neck was broken they lost their semen and it fell to the
earth fertilizing it and creating a male or female alraune. It had
to be dug out of the ground beneath the gallows when the clock
struck midnight and you needed to plug your ears with cotton and
wax or its dreadful screams would make you fall down in terror.
Even Shakespeare tells of this.
    After it is dug up and carried back home you
keep it healthy by bringing it a little to eat at every meal and
bathing it in