As some of you already know, I’m annotating a version of Robinson Crusoe in Latin. The original version is in German, from Robinson der Jüngere, and I found something I don’t understand no matter what.
The Latin text:
Fragōre audītō, barbarī ē > caespitibus > ad terram prōcidunt quasi omnēs ūnā occīsī
The word caespitibus makes no sense here, so I checked against the original German version, which is:
In dem Augenblikke, daß der Knal gehört wurde, stürzten die meisten Wilden von ihrem > Rasensize > zur Erde, als wenn sie mit einem mahle alle wären erschossen worden.
They’re supposed to be on the beach, and came in canoes.
I searched the German word, and it seems like the modern nominative spelling is Rasensitz, and I only guess the meaning, which would be something like “garden seats” (thanks Google images). But would they really have come with seats in canoes? What does that really mean in that context? Is it some idiomatic use? I also checked into the French an English version, to no avail, either the word was omitted, either it was literally translated.
I guess I can’t let the word caespitibus in the text as it’s meaningless in this context, but I need to understand what it’s really about.
I think that in 19th century German Rasensitze can mean “grass seats = seats in the grass”
Here’s Titus Andronicus II.3:
The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind
And make a chequer’d shadow on the ground;
Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,
…
Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise;
This 1870 German translation by Georg Reimer gives that last line as “Vom Rasensitze lauschen dem Gebell”. Seats in the grass under the leaves, not lawn chairs.
So I’d think “von ihrem Rasensitze zur Erde” is “from their sitting-places in the turf to the ground” with “e caespitibus ad terram” a very literal translation.
My preference as a reader would be an explanative note that references the original German. Anyone reading Latin is enough of an antiquary to be interested in “the original text”, even for something like this.
I bet (don’t ask how much!) it means, "With the resounding gunshot, all the creatures fell [or came crashing down] to the ground from their nests in the brush/shrubbery (meaning the brushland where the beach met the forest).