Part 4

Milk is sometimes accepted by the Arabs as a substitute for salt, as the essential factor in the covenant of salt (the _milha_).[92] Milk is nature's life food, it stands for liquid life; two "milk brothers" are somewhat as blood brothers, brothers by a common life.[93] "There seem to be indications," says W. Robertson Smith,[94] "that many primitive peoples regard milk as a kind of equivalent for blood as containing a sacred life. Thus to eat a kid seethed in its mother's milk might be taken as an equivalent to eating 'with the blood,' and be forbidden to the Hebrews[95] along with the bloody sacraments of the heathen."

[92] See references, in W. Robertson Smith's _Religion of the Semites_ (p. 252, note), to Burckhardt and to _K[=a]mil_.

[93] _Blood Covenant_, pp. 10, 11.

[94] _Relig. of the Sem._, p. 204, note; also _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_, pp. 149, 150.

[95] Exod. 23 : 19; 34 : 26; Deut. 14 : 21.

Milk has been employed instead of blood, and again of salt, for transfusion in case of declining life from hemorrhage.[96] This would seem to justify the belief that milk and blood alike represent life in popular thought.

[96] Quain's _Dict. of Medicine_, art. "Transfusion of Milk."

A favorite experiment among young folks is to bring life to dead flies by covering them with salt. When flies are drowned purposely, or by accident, if one is taken from the water apparently dead, and laid on the table, or on a plate, and covered with common salt, in a few seconds the fly will creep out from under the salt, and soon fly away as if unharmed. Other flies in the same condition, not treated with salt, remain as dead. This has been tried by succeeding generations of young folks, and it is one of the folk-lore facts in support of the idea that salt is life.

It may, of course, be that the absorbent power of salt clears the trachea of the fly, and thus permits the restoration of the natural breathing. Of course, there is some explanation of the phenomenon; but the fact remains that the common mind has been affected by such things in the direction of the belief that salt is life in a peculiar sense.

After the foregoing pages were already in type, it was cabled as news from London that an English mechanic claimed to have discovered a method of resuscitating persons who have been drowned. He proposed to cover the entire body of the person taken from the water with dry salt, which is supposed to absorb the moisture, and thus draw the water from the lungs and permit the air again to circulate freely. He claimed to have revived a recently drowned cat, after letting it remain under salt for thirty minutes; and that a drowned dog was thus restored in two hours.

This is simply the folk-lore idea of bringing the dead to life by the application of salt as life. Like many another folk-lore idea, it is deserving of attention because of some possible basis of truth below the idea, apart from the question of fact in connection with the claim.

In "The Barber's Story of his Fifth Brother," in "The Arabian Nights," is an account of the hero's being beaten and slashed until he was supposed to be dead from loss of blood, and his other injuries. Then a slave-girl, named El-Meleehah, the "salt-bearer," came and stuffed salt into his gaping wounds, after which his supposed corpse was thrown into a subterranean vault among the dead. Yet by means of this application of salt he was saved to life, and regained his pristine vigor.[97]

[97] Lane's _Thousand and One Nights_, I, 365.

The references of Jesus to salt would seem to have fuller meaning, if "salt" be understood as equivalent to "life." Where he says to his disciples: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men,"[98] he would seem to remind them that they are the life of the world, if, indeed, they retain life in themselves. And where he says, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another,"[99] he would call them to have life in themselves, and to join with others who have it, in making their life to be felt among their fellows.

[98] Matt. 5 : 13; Luke 14 : 34.

[99] Mark 9 : 50.

A supposed utterance of Jesus, which has been a puzzle to critics and commentators, possibly has light thrown on it in this view of salt as corresponding with life. Discoursing on life, and the wisdom of striving to attain or to enter into life, even at a loss of much that man might value here on earth, Jesus, according to some manuscripts, said, "For every one shall be salted with fire."[100] This sentence is disputed by some, not being found in all the more ancient MSS., and its meaning does not seem to be clear to any.[101] It is obvious that whatever else "salted" here means, it does not mean "salted." To salt is to mingle, or to accompany, with salt. Clearly, fire does not do that. The Greek is as vague, or as ambiguous, as the English. There must be a conventional or popular, a figurative or symbolical, meaning in which "salt" is here used. What can this be?

[100] Mark 9 : 49. Comp. A. V. and R. V.

[101] See notes and references in Nicoll's _Expositors' Greek Testament_; Lange's _Commentary_; Meyer's _Commentary_, in loco, etc.

"Fire" is here spoken of as the synonym, or equivalent, or parallel, of "salt." In this figure, _fire_ is to accomplish what _salt_ performs; the work of _salt_ is to be done by _fire_. In what sense can this be true? Fire does consume and destroy the perishable;[102] it does bring out and refine that which is permanent and precious;[103] it does try and test and reveal the measure of real value in that which is submitted to it.[104] In the testing time, "each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work shall abide which he built thereon [on the one Foundation], he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss: but he himself [who has builded] shall be saved; yet as through fire."[105]

[102] Gen. 19 : 24, 25; Exod. 9 : 23, 24; Lev. 10 : 2; 13: 52-57; Matt. 3 : 12; 7: 19; Luke 3 : 17; John 15 : 6.

[103] Mal. 3 : 2, 3.

[104] 1 Pet. 1 : 7.

[105] 1 Cor. 3 : 13-15.

The whole context of the passage in Mark's Gospel indicates that Jesus is speaking of _life_. He is showing the way to attain to life. He points to the final testing of life by fire. As salt is shown to correspond with life, and as this seems to have been understood by his hearers, would they not have seen that Jesus was pointing out that the measure of life, or salt, the reminder of God's covenant with his people, in every one of them, would be revealed in the testing of fire?

It is, indeed, because salt represents life, that salt was to accompany every sacrifice under the Jewish dispensation. Not death, but life, was an acceptable offering to God, according to the teachings of the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New.[106] God wants "not yours, but you."[107] This was emphasized by priest and prophet in the history of the Jewish people, earlier and later. Paul re-echoed this primal thought when he appealed to Christians: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [yourselves] a _living_ sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."[108] Without salt, without the symbol of life, no sacrifice was to be counted a fitting or acceptable offering at God's altar.

[106] See _Blood Covenant_, passim.

[107] 2 Cor. 12 : 14.

[108] Rom. 12 : 1.

Salt is taken, in the world's thought, as an equivalent of wit, or lively wisdom, in speech. Thus Paul counsels the Colossian Christians: "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer each one."[109] Because the Athenians were noted for their life and wit in speech, "Attic salt" was a synonym of truest life in conversation. Cicero says of Scipio: "_Scipio omnes sale superbat_" ("Scipio surpassed all in salt," or "wit").

[109] Col. 4 : 6.

Pliny after describing the properties and uses of salt, says: "We may conclude then, by Hercules! that the higher enjoyments of life could not exist without the use of salt: indeed, so highly necessary is this substance to mankind, that the pleasures of the mind, even, can be expressed by no better term than the word 'salt,' such being the name given to all effusions of wit. All the amenities, in fact, of life, supreme liberty, and relaxation from toil [in a word, 'life,'] can find no word in our language to characterize them better than this."[110]

[110] _Hist. Nat._, XXXI., 41.

Pliny also calls attention to the fact that "salarium," from which we derive our word "salary," was the "salt money," bestowed as a reward or honorarium on successful generals and military tribunes.[111] The idea of a "living," or a support of life, is in the word "salary." And so when we say that a man is "not worth his salt," we mean that he is not worth his living.

[111] _Ibid._

Salt has been employed as money at various times and in various lands, and thus has been the means of supporting life. It has been so in Tibet and in India, and in the heart of Africa along from the sixth to the nineteenth centuries of our era. Thus even in lands where gold is abundant but less valued than salt.[112]

[112] Marco Polo's _Travels_, Col. Yule's translation, II., 29, 35, 36, 37, and notes to Chap. 47.

It is said of the people of a province in Tibet, that, while they reckon the value of gold by weight, the nearest approach to coined money which they have is in molded and stamped cakes of salt. "On this money ... the Prince's mark is printed; and no one is allowed to make it except the royal officers.... Merchants take this currency and go to those tribes that dwell among the mountains; ... and there they get a _saggio_ of gold for sixty, or fifty, or forty pieces of this salt money; ... for in such positions they cannot dispose at pleasure of their gold and other things, such as musk and the like; ... and so they give them cheap." "This exchange of salt-cakes for gold, forms a curious parallel to the like exchange in the heart of Africa, narrated by Cosmas in the sixth century, and by Aloisio Cadamosto in the fifteenth."[113]

[113] _Ibid._

Victor Hehn calls attention to the fact that "the German copper-coin heller (haller or häller), the smallest coin still in use in Austria, referred to in the German saying, 'to have not a red heller,' derives its name from the salt (_hal_), and the place where it was obtained."[114]

[114] Victor Hehn's _Das Salz_, p. 72.

Pythagoras, speaking as usual in figurative terms, described salt as a preserver of all things, as continuing life and as staying corruption, or death. He directed the keeping of a vessel of salt on every table, as a reminder of its essential qualities.[115]

[115] See Dacier's _Life of Pythagoras_ (Eng. trans.), pp. 60, 105.

Pliny says, moreover, that there are mountains of salt in different countries in India, from which great blocks are cut as from a quarry; and that from this source a larger revenue is secured by the rulers than from all their gold and pearls.[116]

[116] _Hist. Nat._, XXXI., 39.

In many countries of the world salt is a matter of government control, its manufacture and disposition being guarded as if life and death were involved in it. It is a common saying in Italy that a man must not dip up a bucket of water from the Mediterranean Sea; for he might make salt from the water, and so defraud the government.

VII

SALT AND SUN, LIFE AND LIGHT

In Oriental and primitive thought Salt and Sun are closely connected, even if they are not considered as identical. They stand together as Life and Light. Their mention side by side in various places tends to confirm this view of their remarkable correspondence. The similarity of their forms accords with the Oriental delight in a play upon words, even apart from the question of any similarity in their meanings.

Pliny, who, while not an original thinker, was a faithful and industrious collater of the sayings and doings of his contemporaries, and those who had gone before him, especially in the realm of material things, summed up the popular beliefs as to salt and its uses in the declaration that there is nothing better for the human body, in health or in sickness, than salt and sun, "_sale et sole_."[117]

[117] _Hist. Nat._, XXXI., 45.

Not only in the English and the Latin, but in the Greek, the Kymric, and the Keltic, this similarity in the form of the words for salt and sun is to be observed. The Greek _hals_ and _helios_, the Welsh _hal_ and _haul_, the Irish _sal_ and _sul_, illustrate this so far as the form is concerned.[118] As to the signification of the words, it has already been shown that "salt" represents "life" in primitive thought and speech. Similarly the sun was considered "as the life-giver, the emblem of procreation." In consequence, "son" and "sun" are from the same root.[119] In view of this it is not strange that salt and sun, as life and light, were considered in primitive and popular thought as the means of health and hope for mankind.

[118] In the Old Irish and the Old Welsh _s_ and _h_ interchange, as they do in the Zend. See Table of Grimm, in Sayce's _Introduction to the Science of Language_, I., 305.

[119] Skeat's _Etymological Dictionary_, at words "Salt," "Son," "Solar," "Sun;" also Kluge's _Etymological Dictionary_, s. v. "_Sonne_."

"The root of the word for salt is unknown. The name of the sun is apparently a derivation from the root _su_ (or _s[=a]v_) 1. To generate. 2. To impel, to set in motion, to bring about."[120] If the same be not the root of the word "salt," there is at least reason for thinking that the meaning of the two words "salt" and "sun" are similar,--one gives life, the other represents life.

[120] According to Prof. Dr. Hermann Collitz, of Bryn Mawr. Compare Joh. Schmidt in Kuhn's "Zeitschrift," XXVI., 9; and O. Schrader, _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, p. 414. Trans. by F. B. Jevons.

To the primitive mind it certainly would seem natural to ascribe the creation of salt to the action or power of the sun. Peculiarly would this be the case with dwellers by the ocean or sea, or inland salt lakes. As the sun shines upon the water drawn from the sea or lake, the water is evaporated and the salt remains. This is the ordinary process of salt-making with all its benefits in various countries to the present day. What thought is more natural, in view of this recognized fact, than that the sun is the generator, or the begetter, of salt which is life? If the sun is supposed to bring life, in what way does it more directly accomplish this than by this salt creation?

This would seem to give added significance and force to the words of Jesus as to salt and light. If in the days of Jesus it was held, as Pliny says, that there was nothing that could help the life of humanity like salt and sun, life and light, the disciples of Jesus must have recognized a peculiar meaning in the teachings of the Great Physician as he sent them out into the world to heal the sick, and raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons,[121] when he suggested that it was what they were, rather than what they did, that was to be the help of humanity. In the same teaching he said, "Ye are the salt of the earth," "Ye are the light of the world."[122]

[121] Matt. 10 : 8.

[122] Matt. 5 : 13, 14.

The recognized meaning of these words in the days of Jesus intensified their importance at every use of them, as when it was said that "in Him was life; and the life was the light of men."[123] Salt was blood; blood was life; salt was life; life was light; blood and salt and light were life.

[123] John 1 : 4.

Among folk-lore customs on both sides of the ocean, salt and a candle are carried across the threshold on moving to a new house, as if representing life and light as needs in a new home. Sometimes the Bible also is included, as if in recognition of the true basis of all sacred covenanting. There are other folk-lore customs connecting salt and light.[124]

[124] See Chap. X., _infra_.

According to Professor Dr. Hilprecht, in the old Assyrian language, _[t.]âbtu_, "salt," and _[t.]âbtu_, "blessing," have the same ideogram, and are written exactly alike. "This suggests the inquiry whether they are not derived from the same root, _[t.]âbu_, 'to be good,' and whether _[t.]âbtu_, 'salt,' was not so called by the Assyrians as the great blessing given to man, as needed more than aught else for the preparation of food and the preservation of life."

VIII

SIGNIFICANCE OF BREAD

Bread is the basis of a common meal, as blood is the basis of a common life. As, in the sacrifices, the body of the animal offered in sacrifice was the basis of a covenant meal, while the blood was the basis of union with the divine; so in the symbolism of bread and wine, in any sacramental meal, or in any meal of sacred covenanting between two persons, the bread stood for the flesh, and the wine for the blood. So, also, when bread and salt are used together, the salt would seem to stand for blood or life, and the bread to stand for the flesh or the body.[125]

[125] See _Blood Covenant_, pp. 182-190; 268 f.; 350-355.

Blood gives life; flesh as food gives sustenance. Salt represents life; bread represents sustaining food. In this light those who share salt together are in a life-sharing covenant; those who share bread together are sharers in a common growth. Covenant union in sacrifice is secured or consummated by blood-sharing; it is evidenced or celebrated by food-sharing.

"Milk and honey" seem to be a symbol of blood and flesh, or of salt and bread, from a divine source. They are supplied to man from the vegetable world, through the agency of living animals, by the power of the Author of life. They stand for the vivifying and nourishing of the body by a providential ministry to man. In this light they seem to be viewed by primitive peoples. The Land of Promise was represented to the ancient Hebrews as "a land flowing with milk and honey,"[126] and this figure seemed to represent to them all that could be desired in the line of God's ministry to their material needs. It was many times repeated to them, or by them, in this sense.[127]

[126] Exod. 3 : 8, 17; 13 : 5; 33 : 3.

[127] Lev. 20 : 24; Num. 13 : 27; 14 : 8; 16 : 13, 14; Deut. 6 : 3; 11 : 9; 26 : 9, 15; 27 : 3; 31 : 20; Josh. 5 : 6; Jer. 11 : 5; 32 : 22; Ezek. 20 : 6, 15.

This symbolism was preserved by the early Christians in connection with the rite of baptism. Tertullian describing that rite says: "Having come out from the bath, we are anointed with a blessed unction of holy oil;" afterwards "we first taste a mixture of honey and milk."[128]

[128] Tertullian. _De Coron._, v. 3, _adv. Prox._ XXVI., _de Bapt._ vii. and viii., cited in Blunt's _Annotated Book of Common Prayer_, p. 209.

IX

SALT IN SACRIFICES

Salt seems to have been recognized as a vital element in sacrifices both in the teachings of the Bible and in the customs of the pagan world. In the Lord's injunction to Israel, it is said unqualifiedly: "And every oblation of thy meal offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meal offering: with all thine oblations [offerings bloody or unbloody] thou shalt offer salt."[129]

[129] Lev. 2 : 13. See also Ezek. 43 : 21-24.

An alternative reading of the words of Jesus in Mark's Gospel refers to this custom when it says that "every sacrifice shall be salted with salt."[130] Josephus, in his "Antiquities of the Jews," makes reference to the large quantities of salt required for sacrifices.[131] This corresponds with the provision of the King of Persia for Jewish sacrifices, "salt without prescribing how much,"[132]--a limitless or indefinite amount.

[130] Mark 9 : 49. These words are by some critics counted a gloss; yet the fact as a fact, with reference to salt in sacrifices, is undisputed.

[131] _Antiquities of the Jews_, XII, iii, 3.

[132] Ezra 7 : 21, 22.

In the Hebrew text which the Septuagint translators had before them, salt is represented as always on the table of shewbread, and as an important factor in that memorial offering before the Lord. It reads: "And ye shall put upon the pile [of bread] pure frankincense and salt, and they shall be to the bread for a memorial lying before the Lord."[133] Philo Judæus makes mention of this salt with the bread, on the sacred table in the Holy Place, and refers to the salt as a symbol of perpetuity.[134]

[133] Swete's _Septuagint_ at Lev. 24 : 7.

[134] _De Victimis_, § 3.

In the directions for the preparation of the holy incense for use by the priests in the services of the tabernacle, the fragrant gums and spices were to be "seasoned [or tempered together] with salt, pure and holy."[135] And this incense was for sacrificial offering.

[135] Exod. 30 : 34, 35, Revised Text, and marginal note.

It is still a custom among strict Jews to observe the rite of the covenant of salt at their family table, before every meal. The head of the house, having invoked the Divine blessing in these words, "Blessed be thou O Lord our God, King of the universe, who causest bread to grow out of the earth," takes bread and breaks it in as many pieces as there are persons present. Having dipped each piece into salt, he hands a portion in turn to every one, and they share it together. In cases where there is less strictness of ritual observance on the part of modern Jews, this ceremony is limited to the beginning of the Sabbath, at the Friday evening meal.

This might seem to be merely a renewal of the covenant which binds the members of the family to one another and to God; yet it evidently partakes of the nature of a sacrifice, and it is so understood by the more orthodox Jews. The primitive idea of an altar was a table of intercommunion with God, or with the gods. It was thus with the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Arabs, the early inhabitants of North and South America, and with primitive peoples generally.[136] Thus also the Bible would seem to count an altar and a table as synonymous. The prophet Malachi reproaches, in God's name, the Jews for irreverence and sacrilege. "And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine _altar_. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The _table_ of the Lord is contemptible."[137]

[136] _Blood Covenant_, pp. 167-190.

[137] Mal. 1 : 6, 7. See also Isa. 65 : 11 and Ezek. 41 : 22.

The Talmud emphasizes the home table of the Jew as the altar before the Lord, to be approached in sacrifice with the essential offering of salt. "As long as the Temple existed, the altar effected atonement, and now it is for the table of each man to effect atonement for him. It is for this reason that the description of the altar (in Ezekiel 41 : 22) closes by saying, 'And he said unto me, This is the table that is before the Lord.'"[138]

[138] Tract B'rakhoth 55 _a._, cited by the Rev. Dr. M. Jastrow.

It would seem, therefore, that bread and salt are as the body and the blood, the flesh and the life, offered in sacrifice at the home table of the Jew, as formerly at the altar of intercommunion with God.[139]

[139] _Blood Covenant_, pp. 350-355.

This view of the household table as an altar has been recognized by many Jews. Picart[140] says:

[140] _Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations of the Known World_, I., 245. London, 1733.