174 NECESSITY OF SALT 



make a kind of porridge, to which sometimes is also 

 added several warm seeds, such as the common 

 cress or black mustard, both of which are indigenous 

 in Abyssinia. When unable to make the " wort," 

 a little of the "dillock" is placed en masse upon 

 the bread, which the eater endeavours to make go 

 as far as possible by slight touches of each portion 

 of the food he puts into his mouth. 



Whilst speaking of this article of food, it may 

 be as well to observe, that its use appears to 

 have been dictated by the situation of the Abys- 

 sinian s. As an easy illustration by analogy, it 

 may be safely supposed that salt is a more indis- 

 pensable necessary of life, and far more expensive 

 in that country, than the purest white sugar is in 

 Europe. Children stand around the mother whilst 

 engaged in any manner in which salt is employed, 

 as in England, little silent gazers are attracted 

 around mamma when making sweetened dishes. 

 Good housekeeping with the Abyssinians consists 

 chiefly in the economical management of their stock 

 of salt ; and among other notable modes of making 

 a little do duty for a considerable quantity, besides 

 affording an additional stimulant to the palate, is 

 this system of combining it with pepper. 



An old Dutch method of executing criminals was 

 confining them solely to the use of bread in which 

 no salt was contained, and which ultimately occa- 

 sioned death by the worms that were thus allowed 

 to generate in the intestines. Many children in 



