CHAP. 15.—PTISAN.
With barley, too, the food called ptisan [Note] 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. [Note] In Baltic
and Africa, the kind of barley from which this food is made is
that which Turranius calls the "smooth" [Note] barley: the same
author expresses an opinion, too, that olyra [Note] and rice are the
same. The method of preparing ptisan is universally known.
