56 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI* 



probably used, as at the present day, in making a 

 peculiar kind of cake, called by the Arabs, Koosheli, 

 which is the name it bears when the oil has been 

 previously extracted. * When only bruised in the 

 mill, and still containing the oil, it is called 

 Talieeiieh ; and the unbruised seeds are strewed 

 upon cakes, or give their name and flavour to a 

 coarse conserve, called Haloiceh simsemeeh. The 

 oil of simsim (called seerig) is considered the best 

 lamp oil of the country ; it is also used for cooking, 

 but is reckoned inferior in flavour to that of the 

 lettuce, t 



The castor-berry tree is called by Herodotus t 

 Sillicyprion, and the oil kiki (cici), which he says is 

 not inferior to that of the olive for lamps, though it 

 has the disadvantage of a strong unpleasant smell. 

 Pliny§ calls the tree c/c?", which, he adds, "grows 

 abundantly in Egypt, and has also the names of 

 croton, trixis, tree sesamum, and ricinus." The 

 mode he mentions of extracting the oil by putting 

 the seeds into water over a fire, and skimming the 

 surface, is the manner now adopted in Egypt ; 

 though he says the ancient Egyptians merely pressed 

 them after sprinkling them with salt. The press, 

 indeed, is employed for this purpose at the present 

 day, when the oil is only wanted for lamps 1|; but by 



* Plin. xviii. 10. 



■\- Pliny allows it was inferior to the oil of the cj-pros, since they were 

 in the habit of " adulterating the cyprine with the sesamine oil." xiii. 1. 



X Herodot. ii. 94. 



§ Plin. XV. 7. 



II Pliny evidently had an aversion to castor oil, in which he cannot 

 be considered singular. He calls it " cibis foedum, lucernis utile." Conf. 

 Strabo, xvii. p. 566. 



