BOOK XV. VII. 28-31 



sesame and rice, and the Fish-eater tribes from fish. 

 Scarcity sometimes compels people to make oil for 

 lamps even out of the berries of the plane-tree by 

 steeping them in water and salt. There is also an 

 oil made from the wild vine — we have spoken about 

 the plant itself while dealing with perfumes. For ^^^- ^^^- 

 gleucinum must is boiled in oil with a slow heat, but 

 other makers do not use fire but leave the jar packed 

 round with grape-skins for three weeks, stirring up 

 the mixture twice a day, and the must becomes 

 absorbed by the oil. Some people mix in not only 

 marjoram but also more expensive scents, just as 

 the oil used in the gymnastic schools is also perfumed 

 with scents, though of a very poor quaUty. Oil is 

 also made from aspalathus, reed, balsam, iris, 

 cardamomum, meUlot, GalUc nard, all-heal, mar- 

 joram. helenixim, and cinnamomum root, by steep 

 ing aU these plants in oil and then pressing out the 

 juices. Similarly also rose-oil is made from roses, 

 and rush-oil, which is very similar to oil of roses, from 

 the sweet rush, and Ukewise oils are extracted from 

 henbane and from lupins and narcissus. A very large 

 amount is obtained in Egypt from radish seed or from 

 the blade of the grass caUed chortinon," and Ukewise 

 from sesame and from the nettle caUed cnidinum.* 

 In other places also an oil is made from UUes, which 

 is left in the open air to steep in the sunUght and 

 moonUght and frost. On the border of Cappadocia 

 and Galatia they make from native herbs an oil caUed 

 Selgitic oil, of considerable vahie for the tendons ; 

 and the same oil is made in Italy by the people of 

 Gubbio. From pitch is made an oil caUed pitch-oil ; 

 while the pitch iskepton theboil,fleecesare stretched 

 above the steam rising from it and then wrung out. 



309 



