Histories

It does not even try to bear trees, fig, vine, or olive, but Demeter's grain is so abundant there that it yields for the most part two hundred fold, and even three hundred fold when the harvest is best. The blades of the wheat and barley there are easily four fingers broad;

and for millet and sesame, I will not say to what height they grow, though it is known to me; for I am well aware that even what I have said regarding grain is wholly disbelieved by those who have never visited Babylonia (region (general)), Iraq, Asia Babylonia. They use no oil except what they make from sesame.[*](Sesame-oil or “Benre-oil” is still in common use in the East.) There are palm trees there growing all over the plain, most of them yielding fruit, from which food is made and wine and honey.