(_For the Mirror._)
Potter, in his "Antiquities of Greece," says--"Salt was commonly set
before strangers, before they tasted the victuals provided for them;
whereby was intimated, that as salt does consist of aqueous and terrene
particles, mixed and united together, or as it is a concrete of several
aqueous parts, so the stranger and the person by whom he was entertained
should, from the time of their tasting salt together, maintain a
constant union of love and friendship."
Others tell us, that salt being apt to preserve flesh from corruption,
signified, that the friendship which was then begun should be firm and
lasting; and some, to mention no more different opinions concerning this
matter, think, that a regard was had to the purifying quality of salt,
which was commonly used in lustrations, and that it intimated that
friendship ought to be free from all design and artifice, jealousy and
suspicion.
It may be, the ground of this custom was only this, that salt was
constantly used at all entertainments, both of the gods and men, whence
a particular sanctity was believed to be lodged in it: it is hence
called divine salt by Homer, and holy salt by others; and by placing of
salt on the table, a sort of blessing was thought to be conveyed to
them. To have eaten at the same table was esteemed an inviolable
obligation to friendship; and to transgress the salt at the table--that
is, to break the laws of hospitality, and to injure one by whom any
person had been entertained--was accounted one of the blackest crimes:
hence that exaggerating interrogation of Demosthenes, "Where is the
salt? where the hospital tables?" for in despite of these, he had been
the author of these troubles. And the crime of Paris in stealing Helena
is aggravated by Cassandra, upon this consideration, that he had
contemned the salt, and overturned the hospital table.