In European folklore, mandragoras are familiar demons who appear in the figures of little men without beards.[1]
Mandragoras are thought[by whom?] to be little dolls or figures given to sorcerers by the Devil for the purpose of being consulted by them in time of need, and it would seem as if this conception[weasel words] had sprung directly from that of the fetish, which is nothing else than a dwelling-place made by a shaman or medicine-man for the reception of any wandering spirit who chooses to take up his abode therein.[citation needed]