• BV WHICH THE VINE IS INFESTED. ' 175 



The expositors of the Bible are divided in opinion upon the significa- 

 tion of the words Jelek and Chazil, but are all agreed upon that of th6 

 word Arbeh. There can be no doubt that a locust is signified by 

 this word. The Chaldee Version, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, all 

 agree in their rendering of those passages of the Bible in which this 

 word is found. The Arbeh is the first of the four species of insects, or 

 creeping animals, named by Moses £is proper for the food of man ; and 

 Forskael informs us that the Arabs at the present day give the name of 

 Arbeh to the species of locust which is used among them for food. Now 

 we know from Joel that what the Gaza leaves the Arbeh destroys ; we 

 are therefore entitled to conclude with certainty that Gaza was the 

 name of an insect not only particularly destructive to the vine, but also 

 to plants of every kind ; and that to its ravages succeeded those of se- 

 veral species of locusts, which consumed all that was left undevoured 

 by this formidable insect. Several learned expositors have considered 

 this insect to be a caterpillar, M'hile others of equal authority have de- 

 cided it to be a sort of creeping locust. We shall consider this point 

 upon another occasion ; but at present, faithful to the plan we have 

 traced for our guidance, having exhausted what the Hebrews have writ- 

 ten upon the insects destructive of the vine, we shall pass to the Greeks. 



VI. Ips, Iks. — I shall treat of these two words in one article, because, 

 as will be seen, they cannot be separately considered. 



The word Ips is used in ancient authors as the name of an insect par^ 

 ticularly injurious to the vine ; but it is also employed by Homer, St. 

 John Chrysostom, and the lexicographers and grammarians of the lower 

 ages, to denote an insect or worm which preys upon horn ; and in 

 these two acceptations this word cannot denote a w-orm properly so called, 

 which has another name in the Greek language. 



We will first consider the Ips of Homer. 



This word is employed in the Odyssey, book xxi. verse 295, in which 

 Ulysses, who is not yet recognised by his friends, is represented as re- 

 ceiving his terrible bow. The poet says, " The hero takes the bow, exa- 

 mines it with attention, and turns it in every direction, fearing that in 

 (he absence of its master the horn might have been injured by the Ips" 

 ■ To ascertain what species of horn was subject to the attacks of the 

 Ips of Homer, we must discover the animal the horns of which were em- 

 ployed in the time of Homer in the construction of bows of the best 

 quality, such as were suitable for a king like Ulysses. Upon this 

 point Homer himself gives us information : in the Iliad, book iv. v. 105, 

 we read that the bow of the divine Pandarus was made of the honis of 

 the Aiffos, or the jEgagrus or wild goat ; that its horns were five feet 

 four inches in length ; and that after being polished and united with care 

 by a skilful workman their extremities were gilt. 



