The Covenant of Salt / As Based on the Significance and Symbolism of Salt in Primitive Thought

e 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

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 t

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 protect

nation 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 p

rity, 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

s. Salt must be pounded on certain days and in a certain way, in order to guard

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

itual aid in behalf of a lass who would win back a recreant lover. "A pinch of salt must

this salt I

over's hea

either rest,

s and speaks

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. La

torchie, thri

toom for "loffie

mes three ye m

until it s

und and

aven the s

t that so

torch th

t that sou

dishes pla

e a fair, fair

ate 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 prevent

r, the friends laid on the breast of the deceased a wooden platter, containing a small quantity of salt and earth, separa

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 wi

ocation, for every emergency. "If salt upset, they said, 'Dii avertite omen!'"[187] In Sicily, a goddess known as the Mother of the D

onsecrated.[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 Finni