THE SYMBOLISM OF SALT. 243 



son who had the hardihood to disregard this obligation would have 

 been considered a social pariah of the vilest description. In the 

 Forty Thieves, Cogia Houssain refuses to go to table with his in- 

 tended victim for fear he should partake of this sacred substance 

 in his company, and thus be compelled to forego his plans. When 

 hard pressed for his reason, he makes excuse for not accepting the 

 proffered hospitality by saying, " I never eat of any dish that has 

 salt in it." There is an allusion in the Arabian Nights (Burton's 

 edition, I believe) to a robber who, wandering about in the dark in a 

 strange house, stumbles on a small, hard object.. In order to ascer- 

 tain its nature he puts it to his lips, and, discovering it to be salt, is 

 compelled to abandon his burglarious intentions because, since he 

 has tasted salt beneath that roof, he is forced to respect its master's 

 property. 



Omar Khayyam refers to the symbolical meaning attached to 

 the mineral in the following lines: 



" O wheel of heaven ! no ties of bread you feel, 

 No ties of salt, you flay me like an eel ! " * 



There were a number of other social usages connected with this 

 mineral, from which have arisen various customs, superstitions, and 

 representative expressions. 



In ancient times it was customary to place the saltcellar in the 

 center of the table. Above this sat the superiors, and below the 

 inferiors; hence the expressions, " above the salt/' " below the salt." 

 Jonson, in Cynthia's Revels, illustrates their application : " His 

 fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in 

 clothes. He never drinks below the salt." 



Salt is also symbolical of wit, of sarcasm, of the good things of 

 life, as 



" I never drank of Joy's sweet cordial 

 But Griefs fell hand infused a drop of gall ; 

 Nor dipped my bread in Pleasure's piquant salt, 

 But briny Sorrow made me smart withal.'' f 



Another well-known expression i. e., " To be worth one's salt " 

 doubtless owes its origin to an old custom that obtained in more 

 than one part of the world that is, using cakes of salt as money for 

 instance, in Abyssinia and elsewhere, in Africa and in Thibet, and 

 adjoining parts.:): 



In Colonel Yule's translation of Marco Polo, he devoted a note 

 to the use of salt as a medium of exchange in the Shan markets 

 down to our own times. Also in the same work details are given as 



* Quatrains of Translations. E. H. Whinfield. 



f Omar Khayyam. Translation by E. H. Whinfield. \ Marco Polo, book ii, chap, xlviii. 



