Chap. 17.] AMTLUM. 29 



fine meal, "with the addition of the ingredients already men- 

 tioned, and some millet as Avell. Barley bread, which was 

 extensively used by the ancients, has now fallen into universal 

 disrepute, and is mostly used as a food for cattle only. 



CHAP. 15. PTISAN. 



With barley, too, the food called ptisan^ is made, a most 

 substantial and salutary aliment, and one that is held in very 

 high esteem. Hippocrates, one of the most famous writers on 

 medical science, has devoted a whole volume to the praises of 

 this aliment. The ptisan of the highest quality is that which 

 is made at Utica ; that of Egypt is prepared from a kind of 

 barley, the grain of which grows with two points." In Baetica 

 and Africa, the kind of barley from which this food is made is 

 that which Turranius calls the "smooth"^- barley: the same 

 author expresses an opinion, too, that olyra ^ and rice are the 

 same. The method of preparing ptisan is universally known. 



CHAP. 16. TEAGUM. 



In a similar manner, too, tragum is prepared from swd " 

 wheat, but only in Campania and Egypt. 



CHAP. 17. AMYLUM. 



Amylum is prepared from every kind of wheat, and from 

 winter-wheat ^^ as well ; but the best of all is that made from 

 three-month wheat. The invention of it we owe to the island 

 of Chios, and still, at the present day, the most esteemed kind 

 comes from there ; it derives its name from its being made 

 \vithout the help of the mill.^ 'Next to the amylum made 

 with three-month wheat, is that which is prepared from the 

 lighter kinds of wheat. In making it, the grain is soaked in 



^ Similar to our pearl barley, probably. 



31 « Anguli." Dalechanips interprets this as two rows of grain; but 

 Fee thinks that it signifies angles, and points. The Polygonum fagopyrum 

 of Linnaeus, he says, buck-wheat, or black-wheat, has an angular grain, 

 but he doubts whether that can possibly be the grain here alluded to. 



^' There is no barley without a beard ; it is clearly a variety of wheat 

 that is alluded to. 



^" Triticura spelta of Linnaeus. 



■^ *' Semen," the same as zta, or spelt. 



*^ Sili^o. 56 'AnvXov. 



