Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Arundo

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

ARUN'DO. A reed or cane; a plant very generally used by the ancients in the manufacture of many articles for which the long, light, elastic, and tapering form of its stalk was peculiarly suitable; whence the word is used both by prose writers and poets to designate the object formed out of it. (Plin. H. N. xvi. 66.) Of these the most important are as follows: —

1. A bow, made of cane, particularly employed by the Parthians and Oriental races. Sil. Ital. x. 12.

2. An arrow made of cane, employed by the Egyptians and Oriental races, as well as the Greeks. (Virg. Aen. iv. 73. Ovid. Met. i. 471.) The example (Arundo/2.1) represents an original Egyptian arrow of this description.

3. A fishing rod made of cane, which is shown in the annexed engraving (Arundo/3.1) from a painting at Pompeii. Plaut. Rud. ii. 1. 5. Ov. Met. xiii. 923.

4. A cane rod tipped with birdlime, employed by the ancient fowlers for catching birds. The example (Arundo/4.1) here given is from a terra-cotta lamp, on which a fowler is represented going out for his sport, with this rod over his shoulder; the call bird sits on one end of it, and a cage or a trap is suspended from the other. It was applied in the following manner. The sportsman first hung the cage with his call bird on the bough of a tree, under which, or at some convenient distance from it, he contrived to conceal himself, and when a bird, attracted by the singing of its companion, perched on the branches, he quietly inserted his rod amongst the boughs, until it reached his prey, which stuck to the lime, and was thus drawn to the ground. When the tree was very high, or the fowler under the necessity of taking up his position at a distance from it, the rod was made in separate joints, like our fishing rods, so that he could gradually lengthen it out until it reached the object of his pursuit, whence it is termed arundo crescens or texta. (Mart. Ep. ix. 55. Id. xiv. 218. Sil. Ital. vii. 674 — 677. Pet. Sat. 109. 7. Bion, Id. 11. 5.) The last illustration (Arundo/4.2) is from an engraved gem, and shows the process clearly.

5. A reed-pen, for writing upon paper or papyrus, one of which, by the side of an inkstand, is here represented (Arundo/5.1) from a Pompeian painting. Pers. Sat. iii. 1. Auson. Epist. vii. 50.

6. A pandean pipe, which was made of several stalks of the reed or cane, of unequal length and bore, fastened together and cemented with wax; hence termed arundo cerata (Ovid. Met. xi. 154. Suet. Jul. 32.), as shown by the example (Arundo/6.1) from a Pompeian marble.

7. A rod employed in weaving, for the purpose of separating the threads of the warp (stamen) before the "leashes" (licia) were attached, and passed alternately in and out, before and behind each alternate thread, in order to separate the whole into two distinct parcels, which, when decussated, formed a "shed" for the passage of the shuttle, as represented in the centre of the loom here engraved (Arundo/7.1), which is copied from the Vatican Virgil. Ovid. Met. vi. 55., and consult TELA, TEXO.{TR: No entry "TEXO".}

8. A long cane with a sponge, or other appropriate material, affixed to the end of it, which thus served as a broom for sweeping and cleansing the ceilings of a room. Plaut. Stich. ii. 3. 23. Compare Mart. Ep. xii. 48. and the broom in the hands of the AEDITUUS, s. v.

9. A cane rod for measuring. Prudent. Psych. 826.

10. A stick or cudgel made of cane. Pet. Sat. 134. 4.; but this is probably the same as No. 8.

11. An espalier of canes for training vines. Varro, R. R. i. 8. 2.