Truffles (Psellos told Ioannes kaisar) are harvested by a kind of Caesarian section. Psellos had a family disaster: Euphemia, his adoptive daughter, was dying, revived a little by Ioannes' gift, but lying half-conscious, like the anxious Psellos. Truffles (he continued) had no flowers, and were like Aesop's fox, not spotted like a leopard but with secret virtues. Psellos asked Ioannes if he was from Paphlagonia, where dried pork comes from