242 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



That religious significance should come to be attached to a sub- 

 stance so highly prized, and in many cases so hard to obtain, seems 

 but natural, especially as the habitual use of the mineral commenced 

 with the advance from nomadic to agricultural life that step in 

 civilization that is said to most influence the cults of the nations. 



So important was salt to the ancients that it has been conjectured 

 that the oldest trade routes were created for traffic in the article. 

 Certainly, with the addition of incense, it plays the principal part 

 in all that is known of the ancient highways of commerce. One of 

 the roads in Italy is the Via Salaria, by which the produce of the 

 salt pans of Ostia was carried up into the Sabine country, and to the 

 present day the caravan trade of Sahara is largely dependent upon 

 salt.* 



Of old the gods were worshiped as givers of the fruits of the 

 earth, and especially of bread and salt, which are always mentioned 

 together. This mineral was associated with religious offerings, par- 

 ticularly cereal. Its preservative qualities made it the fitting sym- 

 bol of an enduring compact ; hence, probably, the " covenant of 

 salt," spoken of so frequently in the Bible. 



Numbers, xviii, 19: " It is a covenant of salt forever before the 

 Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee " ; and 2 Corinthians, xiii, 

 5 : " Ought ye not to know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the 

 kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by 

 a covenant of salt? " 



These verses illustrate the importance attached to such compact. 

 Not only were the gifts bestowed, but they were made enduring by 

 " a covenant of salt." 



In the mountains of Salzburg, about 1730, there existed what 

 was known as the " Salt League of God." Menzel gives an account 

 of the ceremony from which the association derived its name : " Each 

 confederate on taking the oath dipped his finger in the saltcellar, 

 and from this circumstance and the allusion it contained to the name 

 of their country the league was styled by them the ' Salt League of 

 God.' " 



The Mexicans personified their veneration for salt in the goddess 

 Huixtocilmatl. She was said to be a sister of the rain gods, with 

 whom she quarreled; in their resentment they drove her into the 

 salt water, where she invented the art of panning the mineral, and 

 became the goddess of salt.f 



Next to its religious significance salt was, above all, the symbol 

 of friendship. To eat salt with a man was held by most peoples, the 

 Orientals especially, to form a sacred tie of brotherhood. Any per- 



* Also see Herodotus's account of the caravan route uniting the salt oases of the Libyan 

 Desert. f Bancroft. Works on Native Races. 



