In the records of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, under date of September
20, 1586, is to be found the following description of an oath which
Scotch merchants were required to take when on their way to the Baltic:—
Certan merchantis passing to Danskerne (Denmark) and cuming
neir Elsinnure, chusing out and quhen they accompted for the
payment of the toill of the goods, and that depositioun of ane
othe in forme following, viz: Thei present and offer _breid_
and _salt_ to the deponer of the othe, whereon he layis his
hand and deponis his conscience and sweiris.[272]
Gypsies likewise sometimes use bread and salt to confirm the solemnity of
an oath. An example of this is recorded in the “Pesther Lloyd” of July 1,
1881. A member of a gypsy band in western Hungary had been robbed of a
sum of money, and so informed his chief, who summoned the elders of the
camp to a council. On an upright cross formed of two poles was placed a
piece of bread sprinkled with salt, and upon this each gypsy was required
to swear that he was not the thief. The real culprit, refusing to take so
solemn an oath, was thus discovered.
Among the Jews the covenant of salt is the most sacred possible. Even at
the present time, Arabian princes are wont to signify their ratification
of an alliance by sprinkling salt upon bread, meanwhile exclaiming, “I am
the friend of thy friends, and the enemy of thine enemies.” So likewise
there is a common form of request among the Arabs as follows: “For the
sake of the bread and salt which are between us, do this or that.”[273]
In the East, at the present day, compacts between tribes are still
confirmed by salt, and the most solemn pledges are ratified by
this substance. During the Indian mutiny of 1857 a chief motive of
self-restraint among the Sepoys was the fact that they had sworn by their
salt to be loyal to the English queen.[274]
The antiquity of the practice of using salt in confirmation of an oath
is shown in the following passage from an ode of the Greek lyric poet
Archilochus, who flourished during the early part of the seventh century
B. C.:—
Thou hast broken the solemn oath, and hast disgraced the salt
and the table.
In the year 1731 the Protestant miners and peasants inhabiting the “salt
exchequer lands,” prior to their banishment from the country by Leopold,
Archbishop of Salzburg, held a meeting in the picturesque village of
Schwarzach, and “solemnly ratified their league by the ancient custom
of dipping their fingers in salt.” The table at which this ceremony took
place, and a picture representing the event, are still shown at the
Wallner Inn, where the meeting was held.[275]