BULL. 30] 



SALT 



419 



possible to say. Salt was eaten as a con- 

 diment, the only instance of its use as a 

 preservative being its addition to yeast to 

 prevent putrefaction. The desire for salt 

 is presumed to arise from a physiological 

 need, and it is thought that the demand 

 for it is greatest when cereal or vegetal 

 food is eaten, and decreases as the diet is 

 more and more of animal substance. 

 Baegert says the tribes of Lower Cali- 

 fornia ate "everything unsalted, though 

 they might obtain plenty of salt," and 

 gives as a reason that since they moved 

 aboutconstantly, salt was too cumbersome 

 to carry with them. The Gabrielenos of 

 s. California used salt sparingly; the 

 Hupa, the Achomawi, and perhaps other 

 California Indians, do not eat salt; the 

 Eskimo regard it as an abomination, 

 while the Achomawi believe its use in 

 food would cause sore eyes (Dixon). The 

 Creeks tabooed its use in the busk cere- 

 mony until after the ball play (Speck). 

 Other tribes used substitutes for salt, as 

 the Karankawa of Texas, who, Gatschet 

 says, used chile instead; and the Virginia 

 Indians, who made a form of lye by burn- 

 ing to ashes the stalk of a certain plant. 

 "They season their broth with it, and 

 they know no other salt," says Capt. 

 John Smith. The Cherokee used lye, 

 and even now among the Eastern Chero- 

 kee salt is almost unused by them. In- 

 deed it is probable that none of the 

 Southern tribes used salt before the com- 

 ing of the whites. According to Harlot, 

 the people of Roanoak used as a condi- 

 ment the saline ashes of a plant taken to 

 be orage, and resembling the melden of 

 the Germans ( Atriplex patuJum) , a species 

 of saltwort, which runs into many varie- 

 ties and is common to Europe and Amer- 

 ica. All the Algonquian names for salt 

 are formed from a root meaning "to be 

 sour" or "acid." There is no root "to 

 be saline." The water of the ocean was 

 known as "sour water." 



Salt exists in enormous quantities in 

 the United States, and it was not difhcult 

 for the Indians to obtain it. The Omaha 

 took up salt incrustations with feathers 

 and transferred it to bags, or broke up 

 rock salt with sticks and pounded it to 

 the desired fineness. The source of their 

 supply was near Lincoln, Nebr., and the 

 headwaters of a stream s. w. of Repub- 

 lican r., probably Saline r., Kans. The 

 Shawnee were famed as salt makers, and 

 the great spring on Saline cr., below the 

 mouth of Walnut cr., on the Ohio, was 

 purchased from them by treaty. The 

 large vessels of very thick pottery found 

 near the salines and elsewhere are found 

 to have been used as evaporating pans by 

 the Indians. The Quapaw made salt from 

 the water of saline springs near the mouth 

 of Arkansas r., evaporating it in earthen 



pans made for the purpose, which left the 

 salt formed into square cakes (Giddings). 

 C. C. Jones says: "The Knight of Elvas 

 informs us that natural salt and the sand 

 with which it was intermixed were thrown 

 into baskets made for the purpose. These 

 were large at the mouth and small at the 

 bottom, or, in other words, funnel-shaped. 

 Beneath them — suspended in the air on a 

 ridge pole — vessels were placed. Water 

 was then poured upon the admixture of 

 sand and salt. The drippings were 

 strained and boiled on the tire until all 

 the water was evaporated, and the salt 

 left in the bottom of the pots." Frag- 

 ments of these leaching baskets have been 

 found in the salt deposits of Petit Anse id.. 

 La. An important salt-making site was 

 uncovered in 1902 by the Peabody Museum 

 at Kimmswick, Mo., where the salt pans 

 were found in place (Bushnell). 



The Rio Grande Pueblos acquired salt 

 principally from the Manzano salines, in 

 central New Mexico; the Zufii obtained 

 their supply from a salt lake manj^ miles 

 s. w. of their pueblo. There w^as early 

 discrimination by the Pueblos in the 

 quality of salt, and long journeys were 

 made to obtain the best kind. In this 

 pursuit many trails led to the Zufii salt 

 lake, where a number of towns were built 

 by a tribe or tribes which were extermi- 

 nated by the Zuni immediately anterior 

 to the advent of the Spaniards in 1539-40. 

 The salt naturally deposited from the 

 supersaturated waters of the Zuni salt 

 lake was collected and carried long dis- 

 tances to the settlements, having been 

 found, it is said, in cliff-ruins in s. Colo- 

 rado, 200 m. from the source of supply. 

 Among the Pueblos, potterj' vessels of 

 special form were used to contain salt, and 

 mortuary vessels which contained food 

 for the dead are frequently saturated with 

 this substance, causing exfoliation of the 

 surface of the ware. 



The Navaho myth of the origin of 

 Dsilydje Qa(;'al relates that "next day 

 they traveled up the stream to a place 

 called Tse'gquka, and here again they 

 halted for the night. This place is noted 

 for its deposits of native salt. The trav- 

 elers cut some out from under a great rock 

 and filled with it their bags, made out of 

 the skins of the squirrels and other 

 small animals which they had captured" 

 (Matthews). 



The Hopi have obtained their salt from 

 time immemorial from the Grand Canyon 

 of the Colorado, Avestward from their 

 villages about 100 m. Here salt is gath- 

 ered with ceremony by making sacrifice 

 to the Goddess of Salt and the God of 

 War, whose shrines are there (Fewkes). 

 The Pueblos have important salt deities, 

 that of the Hopi being Hurung Wuhti, 

 "The Woman of the Hard Substances," 



