254 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in such close proximity. There is reason to believe that this river 

 was the Werra. On its banks, near the town of Salzungen, saline 

 springs have been known from time immemorial and are still in use. 

 The historian further relates that salt was produced near the river and 

 in the contiguous forest, not, as elsewhere, by the evaporation of sea- 

 water, but by pouring brine over a pile of burning wood, with the 

 result that the salt was precipitated as a consequence of the struggle 

 between the two elements, fire and water. Evidently the sacred char- 

 acter that was supposed to attach to this saline substance was due to 

 the belief held by the natives that salt was always a product of the sea, 

 except by the special interposition of the gods, as in this case. That 

 they had contracted a liking for salt elsewhere in their wanderings 

 may be taken for granted. 



Salt is now produced in many parts of Germany, but its existence 

 in any form was not known at this remote period. The article pro- 

 duced in such a singular manner must have been very impure ; but the 

 palates of the primitive Germans were much less sensitive than those 

 of their modern successors. At a later period the Alemani and the 

 Burgundians are said to have frequently striven in battle for salt pits 

 or saline springs claimed by both; but the region can not be definitely 

 located. The record is chiefly interesting when taken in connection 

 with the preceding and others of a similar character as showing the 

 high value placed upon this substance by peoples that had hardly made 

 a start along the highway of civilization. With respect to the above- 

 mentioned method of making an impure grade of salt, it is worth 

 noting that it is also spoken of as employed elsewhere. Varro had 

 heard of a region where the inhabitants knew no salt, but used instead 

 as seasoning a kind of salt coals which they obtained from burning 

 wood. The same method and the same substitute for real salt are also 

 reported as employed by some of the natives of Spain. Pliny devotes 

 a good deal of space in his 'Natural History,' that storehouse of in- 

 formation and imagination, to the consideration of salt. He enumer- 

 ates somewhat in detail the different places in almost the entire known 

 world where it is found, describes the various methods of its produc- 

 tion, notes the fondness of cattle for it, and adds that when mixed with 

 their food it increases the quantity and improves the quality of the 

 cheese. According to him Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome, 

 established the first salt works, and the Romans perform no sacred rites 

 without mola salsa. By the Romans salt was regarded as almost the 

 staff of life, and the salt-cellar was preserved in families because it 

 was supposed to have a quasi-sacred character. In one of his Odes, 

 Horace tells his friend, Grosphus, that the man who enjoys life is he 

 whose father's salt-cellar gleams on his table. In a satire by the same 

 poet, the rustic sage informs the epicure that bread with salt will 



