Jewish thought, that bread and salt at the table are a sacrifice, or
a sacrament; and it would also appear to be in recognition of the
fact that salt stands for blood, or for life. The catechumens, before
they were privileged to share in the Eucharist, were made partakers
of the sacrament of salt (_sacramentum salis_),--salt placed in the
mouth, accompanied by the sign of the cross, and by invocations and
exorcisms.[149]
[149] Bingham's _Antiquities of the Christian Church_, Book X., Chap.
2; Smith and Cheetham's _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_, arts.
"Catechumens," "Salt."
St. Augustine, speaking of this sacrament, says: "What they receive
is holy, although it is not the body of Christ,--holier than any food
which constitutes our ordinary nourishment, because it is a sacrament."
And, referring to its reception by himself, he says: "I was now signed
with the sign of the cross, and was seasoned with his salt."[150]
[150] St. Augustine's Treatise on _Forgiveness of Sins and Baptism_,
II., 46.
In the Greek Church, salt is still deemed an essential element of the
Eucharistic bread. It is said, indeed, that the salt "represents the
life, so that a sacrifice without salt is but a dead sacrifice." The
same is true of the Armenian and Syrian Christians, and Alcuin refers
to the fact that, in his day, certain Christians in Spain insisted that
salt should be put into the bread for the Eucharist.[151]
[151] Smith and Cheetham's _Dict. of Chris. Antiq._, arts. "Elements,"
"Salt."
Salt is put into the mouth of an infant at its baptism, in the Roman
Church of to-day.[152] In administering the salt to the babe the priest
says: "Receive the salt of wisdom. May it be a propitiation for thee
to eternal life."[153] All "holy water," in that church, contains salt
as an essential element.[154] At the dedication of a church, water
mixed with ashes and salt is employed for the sprinkling of the corners
of the altar, and other portions of the church; and the remainder is
poured out at the foot of the altar, where the sacrificial blood was of
old poured out in the Temple offerings.[155]
[152] _Rituale Romanorum_, p. 29 f.
[153] _Ibid._
[154] _Ibid._, p. 276 f.
[155] Smith and Cheetham's _Dict. of Chris. Antiq._, art. "Salt."
In the Brâhmanas, of the Vedic literature, salt is described as the
one "sacrificial essence" which is common to both sky and earth. In
the ritual directions for the "ceremony of establishing a set of
sacrificial fires, on the part of a young householder," the sacrificer,
under the guidance of the priests, is described as proceeding to equip
Agni, the fire, with its proper equipments. He having brought water
and gold,[156] it is said: "He then brings salt. Yonder sky assuredly
bestowed that (salt as) cattle on this earth: hence they say that salt
soil is suitable for cattle. That salt, therefore, means cattle; and
thus he thereby supplies it (the fire) with cattle; and the latter
having come from yonder (sky) is securely established on this earth.
Moreover, that (salt) is believed to be the savor (_rasa_) of those
two, the sky and the earth; so that he thereby supplies it (the fire)
with the savor of those two, the sky and the earth. That is why he
brings salt."[157]
[156] Fire is masculine, water is feminine, gold is seed, according to
the Vedic literature.
[157] Müller's _Sacred Books of the East_, XII., 278 (_Satapatha
Brâhmana_).
According to the Brâhmanas, the first offered sacrifice was a man. When
"the sacrificial essence" went out of the man in his offering, it went
into the horse, then into the ox, then into the sheep, then into the
goat. And afterwards it would seem to have been represented in salt. So
in bringing salt to the fire for sacrifice, there are brought cattle,
or animal offerings, with their blood and their life.[158]
[158] _Ibid._, p. 50.
It is said in Brâhmanic explanation of the pre-eminent value of salt
as a sacrificial essence, that it was made thus by an original
agreement between the sky and the earth. "The sky and the earth were
originally close together. On being separated, they said to each other,
'Let there be a common sacrificial essence (ya-_gñ_-iyam) for us!'
What sacrificial essence there was belonging to yonder sky, that it
bestowed on this earth, that became the salt (in the earth), and what
sacrificial essence there was belonging to this earth, that it bestowed
on yonder sky, that became the black (spots) in the moon. When he
throws salt (on the fire-place), let him think it to be that (_viz_:
the black in the moon): it is on the sacrificial essence of the sky and
the earth that he sets up his fire."[159]
[159] Müller's _Sacred Books of the East_, XII., 278, note.
Among the Booddhists in China, where the sacrifices are almost
exclusively vegetable, salt and wine are added in separate cups.[160]
This would seem to suggest the symbolism of both blood and wine in the
offerings.
[160] Morris's _China and the Chinese_, p. 154.
Salt had its place in sacrifices in ancient Egypt. Herodotus tells,
for instance, of the great annual festival at Saïs, in honor of the
goddess Neith, corresponding to Athena or Minerva. Neith was, in fact,
another presentation of Isis, and was known as "the great mother of all
life." In conjunction with the sacrifices on this occasion, there was
the Feast of Burning Lamps, when all the inhabitants burned, in the
open air, about their houses, lamps filled with oil and salt. He says,
moreover: "The Egyptians who are absent from the festival [at Saïs]
observe the rite of the sacrifice, no less than the rest, by a general
lighting of lamps; so that the illumination is not confined to the city
of Saïs, but extends over the whole of Egypt."[161] Wilkinson says of
these lamps and their contents: "The oil floated on water mixed with
salt;" and he suggests a correspondence of this custom with a like one
in India and in China.[162]
[161] Rawlinson's _History of Herodotus_, II., 92 (Book II., Chap. 62).
[162] _Ibid._, note. See also Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_, III.,
380.
Friedrich, in his "Symbolism of Nature," speaking of this festival,
says that the "salt symbolized the creation of life, and the light that
it came forth from darkness into existence; therefore this did well
suit the festival." And a collector of Etruscan remains, referring to
the magic lamp still used in Italy, says, in connection with these
words of Friedrich, that the "wick fire seemed so mysterious to the
Rosicrucian Lord Blaize that he wrote a book on it, and on the blessed
secrets of salt."[163]
[163] Leland's _Etruscan-Roman Remains_, p. 324 f.
Salt was essential to a sacrifice among the ancient Romans, as among
the Hebrews. A cake made of coarsely ground spelt, or wheat, mingled
with salt, was broken, or bruised, and sprinkled upon the head of
the victim for sacrifice, upon the fire of the altar, and upon the
sacrificial knife. Hence the term "immolation," or sprinkling with
this salted meal, came to be synonymous with sacrificing.[164] Pliny,
telling of the priceless value of salt, says of it in conclusion: "It
is in our sacred rites, more especially, that its high importance is
recognized, no offering ever being made unaccompanied by the salted
cake [_sine mola salso_]."[165] And Ovid says, that "in days of old it
was plain spelt, and the sparkling grain of unadulterated salt that had
efficacy to render the gods propitious to man."[166]
[164] Harper's _Latin Dictionary_, s. vv. "Immolate," "Mola."
[165] Pliny's _Hist. Nat._, Bostock and Riley's trans., XXXI., 41.
[166] Ovid's _Fasti_, I., 337. See, also, Cooper's _Virgil_, notes on
Aeneid, Books II. and XII.
There is good reason for believing that it was much the same with
the Greeks as with the Romans, although the fact that this is not
distinctly declared in the classic texts has led some modern scholars
to call it in question. Barley-meal cakes, with or without salt, were
certainly employed by the Greeks in their sacrifices.[167] And Homer
speaks of salt as "divine."[168] When, therefore, it is considered that
salt was counted essential in sacrifices among the ancient Egyptians,
Hindoos, and Hebrews, as also later among the Romans, it would seem to
need proof to the contrary to meet the natural presumption that the
Greeks also made use of "divine salt" in their sacred sacrificial cakes.
[167] Homer's _Iliad_, I., 449, 458; II., 410, 421; _Odyssey_, III.,
425, 441; Philo's _Opera_, 2 : 240.
[168] _Iliad_, IX., 214. See Eustathius's Commentary, I., 748-750, ed.
Basle (p. 648, ed. Rome).
Salt was offered at every little shrine by the wayside in Guatemala,
in Central America, in olden time. It was an acceptable gift to the
gods.[169]
[169] See Bancroft's _Native Races of the Pacific Coast_, II., 719.
Wellhausen, in treating of the remains of Arabian paganism,[170] tells
of the custom of the old priests of throwing salt into the fire of
sacrifice, unperceived by the worshiper as he appealed to the gods
in his oath, and of the consequent startling of the offerer by the
up-leaping flames, as though under a divine impulse. Various popular
sayings are cited as incidental proofs of this custom; the purport of
them all being that salt in the fires of sacrifice is supposed to be an
effective appeal to the gods.
[170] Wellhausen's _Reste Arabischen Heidentumes_, in _Skizzen und
Vorarbeiten_, III., 124, 131.
Pliny says that "salt, regarded by itself, is naturally igneous, and
yet it manifests an antipathy to fire, and flies from it."[171] This
would seem to be a reference to the tendency of salt to spring up, or
flash and sparkle, when thrown into the flames.
[171] _Hist. Nat._, XXXI., 45.
It has indeed been suggested that the very name "salt" was derived
(through _saltus_, "to leap") from the tendency of this substance
"to leap and explode when thrown upon fire."[172] If there be any
probability in this suggestion, or in another, and more natural one,
that _saltus_ was from the same root as _sal_, "salt," it is easy to
see that the primitive mind might infer that such was the affinity of
salt with the divine, that, when offered by fire, it leaped toward
heaven, and so was understood to be peculiarly acceptable to God or to
the gods, in sacrifice. The Latin verb _salis_ has the twofold meaning
"to salt" or "to sprinkle before sacrifice," and "to leap, spring,
bound, jump;" and the root _sal_ would seem to be in the Latin and the
Sanskrit alike.[173] Similarly, the word "salacious," or lustful, had
this origin.
[172] See citation of Lennep, and Scheideus, in Richardson's _English
Dictionary_, s. v. "Salt."
[173] See Harper's _Latin Dictionary_, s. vv. "sal," "salio," "saltus."
It is evident that the primitive popular mind recognized salt as a
peculiarly acceptable offering in sacrifice to God or the gods, and
that its very name in various combinations seemed to suggest the
aspiring or uprising heavenward.
X
SALT IN EXORCISM AND DIVINATION
The line between sacrificial offerings and offerings for the purpose
of exorcising evil spirits, or of propitiating good spirits, is not
always a clear line even in the mind of the offerer; but there are uses
of salt among primitive peoples which must be placed under the head of
exorcisms and divinations, and as an accompaniment of incantations,
rather than under the head of sacrifices, even though they may be only
perversions of the original idea of sacrifice.
Burckhardt tells of the burning of salt, by way of exorcism, among
the people of Daraon, on the borders of Upper Egypt and Nubia. His
caravan was about being loaded for a journey. "Just before the lading
commenced," he says, "the Ababde women appeared with earthen vessels
in their hands, filled with burning coals. They set them before the
several loads, and threw salt upon them. At the rising of the bluish
flame produced by the burning of the salt, they exclaimed, 'May you be
blessed in going and in coming!' The devil and every evil genius are
thus, they say, removed."[174]
[174] Burckhardt's _Travels in Nubia_, p. 157.
Among Muhammadan Arabs, in and out of Egypt, salt is sprinkled on
the floors of every apartment in the houses, on the last night of
the month of Ramadan, accompanied by the words, "In the name of God,
the Compassionate, the Merciful!" This is because the evil jinn, or
genii, are supposed to be confined in prison during that month, and the
sprinkling of salt, with the prescribed invocation, ensures protection
from them as they renew their work of harm. Salt is also sprinkled on
the floor after the birth of a child, as a propitiatory offering for
mother and child, against the influence of the evil eye.[175]
[175] Lane's _Arabian Society in the Middle Ages_, pp. 41, 188.
In China, on the eve of the new year, salt is thrown into the fire,
and the manner of its burning is taken as an indication, favorable
or unfavorable, for the coming year. It is a species of divination
by salt.[176] In Japan, the burning of salt, or the offering it in
this way to the gods, is a propitiatory sacrifice in time of danger;
and it is scattered at the threshold for a similar purpose after a
funeral.[177] In Syria, also, the burning of a lump of salt in the
fire is resorted to as a means of exorcising the malevolent spirit
which afflicts one through the "evil eye."[178]
[176] Doolittle's _Social Life of the Chinese_, II., 58 f.
[177] Griffis's _Mikado's Empire_, pp. 467, 470; Bird's _Untrodden
Tracks in Japan_, I., 392.
[178] George A. Ford, in _The Church at Home and Abroad_, Dec., 1889,
p. 501.
While suspected persons, or persons of doubtful orthodoxy, were
undergoing the "ordeal of boiling water" under ecclesiastical
authority, in the Middle Ages and earlier, it is said that "by
way of extra precaution, in some ritual it is ordered that holy
water and blessed salt be mingled in all the food and drink of
the patient--presumably to avert diabolical interference with the
result."[179]
[179] Martène, _De Antiq. Eccles. Ritibus_, Lib. III., c. vii., Ordo.
19; cited in Lea's _Superstition and Force_, p. 281.
Among the folk-lore customs in modern Greece salt has prominence in
various ways. Salt must be pounded on certain days and in a certain
way, in order to guard against ill luck. Salt must never be carried out
of the house after dark.[180]
[180] Rodd's _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 156.
In Scotland and in England, as well as in the East, the use of burning
salt in exorcism has continued in the more primitive regions down to
the present century. James Napier tells, for example, of the treatment
to which he was subjected as a child, when it was surmised that he had
gotten "a blink of an ill e'e." He says: "A sixpence was borrowed from
a neighbor, a good fire was kept burning in the grate, the door was
kept locked, and I was placed upon a chair in front of the fire. The
operator, an old woman, took a tablespoon and filled it with water.
With the sixpence she then lifted as much salt as it could carry, and
both were put into the water in the spoon. The water was then stirred
with the forefinger till the salt was dissolved. Then the soles of my
feet and the palms of my hands were bathed with this solution thrice,
and after these bathings I was made to taste the solution three times.
The operator then drew her wet forefinger across my brow,--called
'scoring aboon the breath.' The remaining contents of the spoon she
then cast over the fire, into the hinder part of the fire, saying as
she did so, 'Guid preserve frae a' skith.' These were the first words
permitted to be spoken during the operation."[181] Mr. Napier adds
that while in his case the "scoring aboon the breath" was accomplished
by scoring with a finger wet with salt water, the suspected possessor
of an evil eye was scored with the finger-nails, or some sharp
instrument, so as to draw blood. The blood and the salt seemed to have
correspondent values.
[181] _Folk-Lore of the West of Scotland_, p. 36 f.
In the southern counties of England, salt is thrown into the fire by
way of invoking spiritual aid in behalf of a lass who would win back a
recreant lover. "A pinch of salt must be thrown into the fire on three
successive Friday nights, while these lines are repeated:
"'It is not this salt I wish to burn,
It is my lover's heart to turn;
That he may neither rest, nor happy be,
Until he comes and speaks to me.'"[182]
[182] Henderson's _Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 176.
There seems to be a special value in the sacred number "three," in the
appeals through salt to the spiritual powers. In the Scottish Lowlands,
"when a dead body has been washed and laid out, one of the oldest women
present must light a candle, and wave it three times around the corpse.
Then she must measure three handfuls of common salt into an earthenware
plate, and lay it on the breast. Lastly she arranges three 'toom,' or
empty dishes, on the hearth, as near as possible to the fire; and all
the attendants going out of the room return into it backwards, repeat
this 'rhyme of saining:'
"'Thrice the torchie, thrice the saltie,
Thrice the dishes toom for "loffie" (_i. e._, praise),
These three times three ye must wave round
The corpse, until it sleep sound.
Sleep sound and wake nane,
Till to heaven the soul's gane.
If ye want that soul to dee
Fetch the torch th' Elleree;
Gin ye want that soul to live,
Between the dishes place a sieve,
An it sail have a fair, fair shrive.'"[183]
[183] Henderson's _Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 53.
In connection with the putting of a plate of salt on the breast of a
dead body, there were various usages. A plate of bread was sometimes
set with the salt, and again a plate of earth was its accompaniment.
And different reasons were assigned for the presence of the salt there.
Napier says that many persons claimed for it a value in preventing the
swelling of the body in process of decomposition, "but its original
purpose was to act as a charm against the devil, to prevent him from
disturbing the body."[184]
[184] _Folk-Lore of the West of Scotland_, p. 60.
"Pennant tells us that formerly, in Scotland, the corpse being
stretched on a board and covered with a close linen wrapper, the
friends laid on the breast of the deceased a wooden platter, containing
a small quantity of salt and earth, separate and unmixed; the earth an
emblem of the corruptible body, the salt as an emblem of the immortal
spirit [the life]."[185]
[185] Thistleton Dyer's _Domestic Folk-Lore_, p. 60.
Napier adds: "There was an older superstition which gave another
explanation for the plate of salt on the breast. There were persons
calling themselves 'sin-eaters,' who, when a person died, were sent for
to come and eat the sins of the deceased. When they came, their _modus
operandi_ was to place a plate of salt and a plate of bread on the
breast of the corpse, and repeat a series of incantations, after which
they ate the contents of the plates, and so relieved the dead person
of such sins as would have kept him hovering around his relations,
haunting them with his imperfectly purified spirit, to their great
annoyance, and without satisfaction to himself."[186] The basis of this
plan of vicarious substitution of personality would seem to be, in the
entering of the "sin-eaters" into oneness of life with the deceased
through the salt covenant or the blood covenant, in partaking of his
body and blood in the bread and salt from his breast.
[186] _Folk-Lore_, p. 60.
Leland, in his "Etruscan-Roman Remains in Popular Tradition," says that
there was, among the Tuscan Romans, an incantation, or an invocation,
for every emergency. "If salt upset, they said, 'Dii avertite
omen!'"[187] In Sicily, a goddess known as the Mother of the Day "is
invoked when salt is spilt."[188] He also cites various incantations
and exorcisms, in which salt is an essential factor.[189]
[187] _Etruscan-Roman Remains_, p. 12.
[188] _Ibid._, p. 148.
[189] _Ibid._, pp. 122, 204, 242, 264, 281, 286, 287, 312, 345.
A custom prevails in some portions of Pennsylvania, even to this
day, of carrying a bag of salt, with a Bible, over the threshold, on
entering a new house for the first time. There are families who would
not consent to live in a home which had not been thus consecrated.[190]
This would seem to be a survival of the passing over the threshold
with an offering of blood. A correspondence of this practice with
ancient Etruscan customs seems to be indicated by the collections of
Leland.[191] Among the Mordvins, a Finnish people on the Volga, salt
on bread is placed under the threshold of the bride's paternal home
at the time of a marriage covenant.[192] This may be classed with
sacrifices or with divination according to our idea of the workings of
the primitive Mordvin mind.
[190] _Threshold Covenant_, p. 21.
[191] _Etruscan-Roman Remains_, p. 306.
[192] Ralston's _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 277 f.
XI
FAITHLESSNESS TO SALT
The fact that in its primitive conception a covenant of salt is a
permanent and unalterable covenant, naturally suggests to the primitive
mind the idea of treachery as faithlessness to salt. The Persian term
for a "traitor" is _namak harâm_, "untrue to salt," "one faithless
to salt;"[193] and the same idea runs through the languages of the
Oriental world.
[193] Gesenius's _Thesaurus_, p. 790.
Baron du Tott, referring to the sharing of bread and salt, says: "The
Turks think it the blackest ingratitude to forget the man from whom we
have received food, which is signified by the bread and salt."[194]
But it is obvious that it is faithlessness to salt, not to bread or
ordinary food, that is deemed blackest ingratitude. This is in India,
as in Turkey. Tamerlane, the Mongol-Tatar chieftain, speaking, in his
institutes, of one Share Behraum, who had deserted his service for the
enemy and afterwards returned to his allegiance, says: "At length my
salt which he had eaten overwhelmed him with remorse, he again threw
himself on my mercy, and humbled himself before me."[195] Frazer
quotes a rebel chief in India as saying, when he capitulated after a
siege, and was asked if he would return to his old allegiance, "No,
I can no more visit my country; I must look for service elsewhere. I
can never face the rajah again; for I have eaten Ghoorka salt. I was
in trust, and I have not died at my post. We can never return to our
country."[196]
[194] _Memoirs of the Turks and Tartars_, Part I., p. 214; cited in
Bush's _Illustrations of the Holy Scriptures_, at Numbers 18 : 19.
[195] Quoted in Burder's _Oriental Customs_, 2d ed., p. 77.
[196] Frazer's _Journal of Tour through Himala Mountains_, quoted in
Burder, p. 77, at Ezra 4 : 14.
Burton says that the Bed'ween of Arabia denounce the Syrians as
"abusers of the salt," because they cannot be depended on in their
agreements.[197] And Dr. Thomson says that Orientals "often upbraid
the civilized Frank because he does not keep bread and salt, is not
faithful to the covenant of brotherhood."[198]
[197] _Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah_, III., 114.
[198] _The Land and the Book_, II., 41.
Burton says also, of the Bed'ween of El Hejaz: "'We have eaten salt
together' (_nahnu malihin_) is still a bond of friendship: there are,
however, some tribes who require to renew the bond every twenty-four
hours, as otherwise, to use their own phrase, 'the salt is not in their
stomachs.'"[199] And he quotes the advice to him of Shaykh Hamid,
concerning the Bed'ween who were to escort him from El Medinah, "never
to allow twenty-four hours to elapse without dipping hand in the same
dish with them, in order that the party might always be 'malihin,' on
terms of salt."[200] Treachery on the part of one who has even partaken
of an ordinary meal with another is, however, counted, among Orientals,
a peculiar crime, as surprising as it is unusual.[201]
[199] _Pilgrimage_, III., 84.
[200] _Pilgrimage_, II., 334.
[201] Psa. 41 : 9; John 13 : 18.