THE PHILOSOPHY OF SALT. 285 



and distrustful ; their intercourse was that of war. 

 But nature, by means of a curious contrivance, has 

 rendered it impossible for men to remain eternally 

 apart. Common salt is one of the mineral constituents 

 of the human body, and savages, who live chiefly on 

 vegetable food, are dependent upon it for their life. 

 In Africa, children may be seen sucking it like sugar. 

 " Come and eat with us to-day," says the hospitable 

 African ; " we are going to have salt for dinner." It 

 is not in all countries that this mineral food is to be 

 found ; but the saltless lands in the Soudan contain 

 gold dust, ivory, and slaves ; and so a system of barter 

 is arranged, and isolated tribes are brought into 

 contact with one another. 



The two great magazines are the desert and the 

 ocean. At the present day, the white powdery Eng- 

 lish salt is carried on donkeys and slaves to the upper 

 waters of the Niger, and is driving back the crystal- 

 line salt of the Sahara. In the ancient days, the salt 

 of the plateau came entirely from the mines of Bilma 

 and Toudeyni, in the desert, which were occupied and 

 worked by negro tribes. But at a period far remote, 

 before the foundations of Carthage were laid, a Berber 

 nation, now called the Tuaricks, overspread the desert, 

 and conquered the oases and the mines. This terrible 

 people are yet the scourge of the peaceful farmer and 

 the passing caravan. They camp in leather tents ; 

 they are armed with lance and sword, and with 

 shields, on which is painted the image of a cross. The 

 Arabs call them " the muffled ones," for their mouths 

 and noses are covered with a bandage, sometimes 

 black, sometimes white, above which sit in deep 

 sockets, like ant-lions in their pits, a pair of dark, 

 cruel, sinister looking eyes. They levy tolls on all 



