Among the peasants of the Spanish province of Andalusia the word “salt”
is synonymous with gracefulness and charm of manner, and no more
endearing or flattering language can be used in addressing a woman,
whether wife or sweetheart, than to call her “the salt-box of my love.”
The phrase “May you be well salted” is also current as an expression of
affectionate regard.[321]
Scotch fishermen have a traditional custom of salting their nets “for
luck,” and they also sometimes throw a little salt into the sea “to blind
the fairies.”
In the Isle of Man the interchange of salt is regarded as indispensable
to every business transaction, while Manx beggars have even been known to
refuse an alms if proffered without it.[322]
In Syracuse, Sicily, salt has won distinction as a symbol of wisdom
through a curious misinterpretation of the words _sedes sapientiæ_ of the
so-called Lauretane litany; these words becoming in the mouths of the
people _sale e sapienza_,[323] salt and wisdom.
Salt and bread, representing the necessaries of life, are the first
articles taken into the dwelling of a newly married pair in Russia. And
in Pomerania, at the close of a wedding breakfast, a servant carries
about a plate containing salt, upon which the guests place presents of
money.[324]
In olden times bread and salt were reckoned the simplest and most
indispensable articles of diet, and were offered to guests as a guarantee
of hospitality and friendliness. The universal reputation of salt as a
symbol of good-will is shown in the proverbs and current sayings of many
nations. Cicero, in his treatise on Friendship, wrote that age increased
the value of friendships, even as it improved the quality of certain
wines; and he added further that there was truth in the proverb, “Many
pecks of salt must be eaten together to bring friendship to perfection.”
Inasmuch as salt is a necessary and wholesome article of diet, a generous
use of it is reckoned beneficial. Evan Marlett Boddy, F. R. C. S., in his
“History of Salt,” p. 78, comments with some asperity on the custom,
prevalent at the tables of English gentlefolk, of placing salt in the
tiniest receptacles, as if it were a most expensive substance. He regards
it as anything but edifying “to see the host and his guests, in the most
finical, grotesque manner, help themselves to the almost infinitesimal
quantities of salt, as if it were a mark of good breeding and delicacy.”
On the contrary, he continues, such stupid customs of “good society” are
truly indicative of mental weakness and profound ignorance.
In a treatise on the “Dignity and Utility of Salt,” by Jean de
Marcounille Percheron, Paris, 1584, this mineral is likened in value
to the four elements recognized by the ancients,—earth, air, fire, and
water; and indeed, on account of its importance for the maintenance of
health in the animal economy, salt has been termed a “fifth element.” So
highly did the Thracians of old prize this commodity that they bartered
slaves in exchange for it, whence originated the phrase _Sale emptum
mancipium_.
The Egyptian geographer, Cosmas, stated that a salt currency was in use
in Africa in the sixth century;[325] and Marco Polo wrote that salt was a
common medium of exchange among certain Asiatic peoples in the thirteenth
century. In Tibet, for example, pieces of salt shaped in a mould, and
weighing about half a pound each, served as small change; eighty such
pieces were equal in value to a _saggio_ of fine gold, corresponding to
the Roman _solidus_, worth about three dollars. Salt was, moreover, used
as money at this time in Yun-Nan and other provinces of southwestern
China.[326]
Felix Dubois, in his “Timbuctoo the Mysterious,” p. 123, comments on the
rarity of salt in the interior of the Soudan, and says that it is the
most valuable commodity of that region, the _true gold_ of the Soudanese.
The bulk of the salt supply of Timbuctoo comes from the salt mines of
Taudeny, which are situated in the great Sahara desert, some three
hundred miles away to the north. Here the salt is found in abundance
beneath a scanty layer of sand, and is dug up in lumps and fashioned into
blocks. Small pieces of this rock-salt are useful to the traveler as
money, and are readily accepted as such by the Soudanese merchants.
The camels of southern Mongolia require a certain amount of salt in order
to remain in good condition. Instinctively, therefore, they browse upon
the saline efflorescence which is found on the grassy plains or steppes
of Asia. Baron Humboldt, in his “Aspects of Nature” (Berlin, 1808),
wrote that these plains were covered with juicy, evergreen soda plants;
and that many of them glistened from afar with flakes of exuded salt,
which much resembled newly fallen snow. When camels do not find this
efflorescence, they sometimes show their craving for its saline flavor
by taking white stones in their mouths, supposing them to be lumps of
salt.[327]
Owing to the universality of its use, salt has been termed the
“cosmopolitan condiment.” The craving for this substance is not confined
to man, but is shared by the lower animals, and its hygienic value
for horses and cows is well known. Wild animals travel long distances
over deserts and prairies, or through swamps and jungles, to reach
“salt-licks.”
It may be that this natural craving for salt, which is common to man and
beast, may have suggested a custom of etiquette in Abyssinia. For when a
native of that country desires to pay an especially delicate attention
to a friend or guest, he produces a piece of rock-salt, and graciously
permits the latter to lick it with his tongue; a custom not a whit more
ridiculous than the ceremonious offering of snuff and the social sneeze
of modern civilization.
In certain portions of the Dark Continent salt is esteemed a great
luxury, and is relished by native children quite as keenly as candy in
more favored lands.
In the region of Accra, on the coast of Guinea, salt is said to rank next
to gold in value; and according to Mungo Park, among the Mandingos and
Bambarras, west African tribes, whose members are unusually intelligent,
the phrase, “flavoring one’s food with salt,” implies the possession of
wealth.[328]
The Namaquas, inhabitants of the Hottentot country, share so little the
sentiments of their neighbors regarding salt that they consider it a
superfluous article having no value whatever.
About the year 1830 there appeared in England a volume by a certain
Doctor Howard, with the following curious title: “Salt, the forbidden
fruit or food; and the chief cause of diseases of the body and mind of
man and of animals, as taught by the ancient Egyptian priests and wise
men and by scripture, in accordance with the author’s experience of many
years.”[329]
As may well be imagined from its title, this book treats of salt as a
most obnoxious substance, abstinence from which as an article of diet is
essential to the maintenance of health.
The use of salt as an article of food was, moreover, thought to render
one irascible and melancholic, and in illustration of this view may be
quoted the following passage from “Euphues and his England,” by John
Lyly, Maister of Arte (1580):—
In sooth, gentlemen, I seldome eate salte for feare of anger,
and if you give me in token that I want wit, then will you
make cholericke before I eate it; for women, be they never so
foolish, would ever be thought wise.
I staied not long for mine answer, but as well quickened by
her former talke as desirous to cry quittance for her present
tongue, said thus: “If to eat store of _salt_, cause one to
fret; and to have no _salt_, signifies lack of wit, then do you
cause me to marvel, that eating no _salt_, you are so captious;
and loving no _salt_, you are so wise, when indeed so much wit
is sufficient for a woman, as when she is in the raine can
warne her to come out of it.”[330]
In a recent article in the “Journal of Hygiene,” the writer affirms
that the general belief in the necessity of the use of salt for the
maintenance of health is mischievous; for many people, in their zeal to
make the most of a good thing, are wont to eat salt as a seasoner of all
kinds of food. Thus an abnormal craving for the saline flavor is acquired
and the condiment is used in excess, thereby unduly taxing the secretory
organs, whereas in reality but a small quantity of salt is requisite.
Persons addicted to the so-called “salt habit” have a perverted taste,
and are naturally total failures as epicures; for how can any one assume
to be a dainty feeder who disguises the true flavor of every dish, and
whose palate refuses to be tickled by the choicest morsels, unless these
smack strongly of salt?
But even in our times the use of salt as a relish is sometimes
deprecated as unnecessary, if not positively harmful. Thus it is argued
that this substance arrests or retards the physiological processes of
disintegration and renewal of the cells which compose the tissues of the
living body, processes essential to the maintenance of life and health.
A recent advocate of this theory maintains that the fondness for salt
shown by some domesticated animals is due to an acquired taste rather
than to an instinctive craving; for dogs and cats easily grow to like
such artificial products as ice-cream and beer. As to the occasional
visits of wild animals to salt-licks, the fact that such visits are
comparatively infrequent has been thought to prove that these animals
periodically require the medicinal effects of saline waters, on the same
principle which leads people of wealth and fashion to visit certain spas
of Europe or America. The writer above mentioned suggests that, whereas
each article of food has its own individual flavor, the addition of
salt makes them all taste alike. And if an inveterate user of salt will
forego this favorite condiment for a month, he will then for the first
time be enabled properly to appreciate the true flavors of meats and
vegetables.[331]
In the “Revelations of Egyptian Mysteries,” by Robert Howard, the use
of salt as a relish is characterized as an infringement of that law of
nature which forbids animals to partake of mineral substances as food.
History may, indeed, vouch for the antiquity of the custom, but can
furnish no proof of its propriety. Indeed, the writer alleges in the
above work that salt is a most pernicious substance, and the direct cause
of many ills.
The idea conveyed by the phrase, “Enough is as good as a feast,” applies
in full force to the use of salt as a condiment, for an excess of this
substance in one’s food certainly spoils its flavor. According to one
version of a Roumanian forest-myth, a prince, while following the chase,
came upon a beautiful laurel-tree, whose branches were of a golden hue.
This tree so pleased his fancy that he determined to have his dinner
beneath its shade, and gave orders to that effect. Preparations were
made accordingly; but during the temporary absence of the cook, a fair
maiden emerged from the tree and strewed a quantity of salt upon the
viands, after which she re-entered the tree, which closed over her. When
the prince returned and began eating his dinner, he scolded the cook for
using too much salt, and the cook quite naturally protested his innocence.
On the following day the same thing occurred, and the prince thereupon
determined to keep watch, in order if possible to detect the culprit.
On the third day, when the maiden came forth from the tree on mischief
bent, the prince caught her and carried her away, and she became his
loyal wife.[332]
This section may be appropriately concluded with the following
translation of a Roman legend illustrating the value of common salt as an
article of food:[333]—
_The Value of Salt. A Roman Folk-tale._
There was once a king who had three daughters, and he was very
anxious to know which of them loved him most; he tried them in
various ways, and it always seemed as if the youngest daughter
came out best by the test. Yet he was never satisfied, because
he was prepossessed with the idea that the elder ones loved him
most.
One day he thought he would settle the matter once for all, by
asking each separately how much she loved him. So he called the
eldest by herself, and asked her how much she loved him.
“As much as the bread we eat,” was her reply; and he said
within himself, “She must, as I thought, love me the most of
all; for bread is the first necessary of our existence, without
which we cannot live. She means, therefore, that she loves me
so much she could not live without me.”
Then he called the second daughter by herself, and said to her,
“How much do you love me?”
And she answered, “As much as wine.”
“That is a good answer too,” said the king to himself. “It is
true she does not seem to love me quite so much as the eldest;
but still, scarcely can one live without wine, so that there is
not much difference.”
Then he called the youngest by herself, and said to her, “And
you, how much do you love me?”
And she answered, “As much as salt.”
Then the king said, “What a contemptible comparison! She only
loves me as much as the cheapest and commonest thing that comes
to the table. This is as much as to say, she doesn’t love me at
all. I always thought it was so. I will never see her again.”
Then he ordered that a wing of the palace should be shut up
from the rest, where she should be served with everything
belonging to her condition in life, but where she should live
by herself apart, and never come near him.
Here she lived, then, all alone. But though her father fancied
she did not care for him, she pined so much at being kept away
from him, that at last she was worn out, and could bear it no
longer.
The room that had been given her had no windows on the street,
that she might not have the amusement of seeing what was going
on in the town, but they looked upon an inner court-yard. Here
she sometimes saw the cook come out and wash vegetables at the
fountain.
“Cook, cook!” she called one day, as she saw him pass thus
under the window.
The cook looked up with a good-natured face, which gave her
encouragement.
“Don’t you think, cook, I must be very lonely and miserable up
here all alone?”
“Yes, Signorina,” he replied; “I often think I should like to
help you to get out; but I dare not think of it, the king would
be so angry.”
“No, I don’t want you to do anything to disobey the king,”
answered the princess; “but would you really do me a favor,
which would make me very grateful indeed?”
“Oh, yes, Signorina, anything which I can do without disobeying
the king,” replied the faithful servant.
“Then this is it,” said the princess. “Will you just oblige
me so far as to cook papa’s dinner to-day without any salt in
anything? Not the least grain in anything at all. Let it be as
good a dinner as you like, but no salt in anything. Will you do
that?”
“I see,” replied the cook, with a knowing nod. “Yes, depend on
me, I will do it.”
That day at dinner the king had no salt in the soup, no salt in
the boiled meat, no salt in the roast, no salt in the fried.
“What is the meaning of this?” said the king, as he pushed dish
after dish away from him. “There is not a single thing I can
eat to-day. I don’t know what they have done to everything, but
there is not a single thing that has got the least taste. Let
the cook be called.”
So the cook came before him.
“What have you done to the victuals to-day?” said the king
sternly. “You have sent up a lot of dishes, and no one alive
can tell one from another. They are all of them exactly alike,
and there is not one of them can be eaten. Speak!”