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PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 
1917 
placed in store. Much, however, of the Spanish and Italian 
Salt, is really only what is called ‘ bay-salt,’ or common sea- 
water evaporated. Salt is a State-monopoly in both countries. 
Among the various minerals in use, possibly there is none 
more really useful to mankind, in a good sense, than Salt. 
Its relationship to us would indeed seem to make it deserve a 
place with the more commonly-called precious metals. Per- 
haps it is even more precious than those, for many of them 
are not, as salt is considered, at all indispensable to man. 
Homer even calls salt ' Divine.’ It has almost universal 
properties. It flavours ; it purifies ; it also preserves. Hence, 
Herrick, the Devon Poet, in his Hesperides, paying it great 
praise, in a comparison with the soul, says : — 
" The body’s salt the soul is, which when gone 
The poor flesh sucks in putrefaction.” (I, 394) 
It was of old looked upon as a steriliser : almost an 
embalmer. With the ancient Jews, as with the Vestals in 
Rome, it was commanded to be used in all sacrifices. Elisha 
with it purified the Fountain at Jericho. The Bedawi Job 
opens his mouth in its praise. The Greek word 'Aaj, signified 
the sea or ocean, which indicates to us pretty clearly the 
chiefest provenance of ancient salt, although our forefathers 
certainly utilised the brine-springs, as well as rock-salt (or 
saltpetre) ; but they also took advantage of the isolated inland 
deposits ; the result (as aforesaid) of pre-historic lakes and 
inland seas. Ammianus Marcellinus tells us (Lib : 28.5) that the 
Alamanni and Burgundii fought fiercely for the possession of 
salt-springs. The fact makes evident the high value those 
particular warrior-tribes set upon salt. But there was another 
source whence salt might be obtained in areas where such 
convenient mineral deposits were not to hand. Tacitus in 
his Annals, mentions that, among the Teuton tribes, water 
thrown on to burning timber (Pliny names quercus optima) 
produced (potash) salt. The same underlying fact is wit- 
nessed to-day ; and among certain of the Indian tribes of 
Brazil, Spruce (ii. 447) tells us that the ashes of the drum-tree 
[CecYOpia peltata) are saline and antiseptic. Wallace, like- 
wise, says that from the fruit of the Inaja palm and the jara 
