X. Kampe.—Aristotle[1] was well acquainted with the metamorphoses of the Butterfly, the larva of which he calls Kampe. He particularly mentions that which feeds upon the cabbage.
Theophrastus[2] , in his History of Plants, employs the word Kampe for an animal which eats the leaves and flowers of all sorts of trees.
Pliny[3], abridging the passage of Theophrastus alluded to, translates Kampe by Eruca, Caterpillar.
We have already seen that the word Kampe occurs three times in the translation of the Bible into Greek by the Seventy, twice in Joel, and once in Amos[4]; and that in the Latin translation of the same passages in the Vulgate, the word Eruca is always employed, though, as we have already remarked, we are not certain that either Kampe or Eruca gives the sense of the Hebrew Gaza, for which they are used.
St. John Chrysostom, in a remarkable passage, speaks of the Kampes as having been an object of worship in the times of paganism[5]; and this word is with reason rendered Erucas, Caterpillars, in the Latin translation. In the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great[6] mention is made of Boniface, Bishop of Ferentum, who enters a garden in which are a very large number of Caterpillars: " Ingressus hortum, magna hunc Erucarum multitudine invenit esse coopertum."
Pope Zachary, translating the same Dialogues into Greek, renders the word Eruca by Kampe.
But the following passage of Columella leaves no doubt upon the subjec[7]:
" Animaiia qua a nobis appellantur Erucæ Græce autem καμπαι nominantur." "The animals that we (the Romans) call Erucæ (Caterpillars) are named in Greek Kampai."
Palladius and Columella, though writing in Latin, always prefer the Greek to the Latin word when they have occasion to mention the caterpillar.
Thus Palladius, giving instructions how to destroy the caterpillars infesting vegetables and the vine, recommends that the stems of the plant producing garlic should be burnt in the garden, and the pruning-knife employed to dress the vine anointed with the garlic, and says: "Campas fertur evincere qui fusticulos allii sine capitibus per horti omne spatium comburens, nidorum locis pluribus excitavit. Si contra
- ↑ Aristotle, De Anim., book v. chap. 19.
- ↑ Theophrastus, book iv. chap. 16.
- ↑ Pliny, book xii. chap. 24.
- ↑ Joel, i. 4 ; ibid. ii. 25; Amos, iv. 9.
- ↑ St. John Chrysostom, Homil. 2. in Acta Apostol., vol. iv. p. 621, book xiv Eton edit. 1612.
- ↑ St. Gregory, Dialogorum Libri IV., book i. chap. 9. vol. ii. p. 396. Paris edition, 1675, folio.
- ↑ Columella, book xi. chap. 3.
