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12.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1897.
sprinkled on the threshold at a Japan funeral.87 Salt is highly valued in West Africa.88 In passing a spirit haunt in Lake Tanganyika in Africa, boatmen throw salt over their heads and into the water.89 In North-West Africa, when an offender's head is cut off, the soldiers, whose duty it is to fix the head on a tower, get a Jew to salt the head before it is set up.90 At a marriage at Bornon, in North Africa, warm salt-water is sprinkled round the house to prevent any evil spirit approaching. If an evil spirit get near the marriage couple, the man will become impotent or the woman barren. In some Mexican ceremonies the faces of the human victims were sprinkled with salt.92
The modern Greeks venerate salt.93 Athenian maidens on the eve of the new moon offer on the bank of the Ilisus a plate with honey, salt, and a cake. In A. D. 1100 Abbot Richatmas wrote: "If the devil takes away my appetite I taste a little salt and my appetite returns. If I lose it again, I take more salt and am again hungry."95 In Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to enter a new stable, salt is sprinkled on its back that the fairies may not lame it.96 German shepherds, who were sorcerers, were accused of baptizing their sheep with salt.97 When (1878) a German prince came back to Bacharest, the Mayor presented him with the customary bread and salt."98 So in Russia strangers are offered bread and salt as a compliment. In France, before a wedding, salt was put in the pockets and a coin in the shoe.100 A Servian (1876), suffering from serious lung disease, is laid, face down, on the ground, while the wise-woman scatters salt on him and walks round him mumbling. In Germany, in a house where one lies dead, three heaps of salt are made." In Germany, unbaptised infants have salt placed beside them for safety. The emigrants from Salzburg dipped a wetted finger in salt and swore.3 In his picture of the Last Supper, Michael Angelo makes Judas upset the salt dish, so that it spills towards him, which, according to Burton, is a bad omen. If salt is spilt, a little should be dropped over the left shoulder to keep off the spirits. At a Roman Catholic baptism salt is blessed by nine crossings, and a little is put in the child's mouth as the salt of wisdom. After consecration, that is, when the sign of the cross is made over it, salt becomes a sacrament able to drive away the enemy.
In
In Ireland, if any one enters on a new office, women in the streets and girls from the windows shower on him wheat and salt. In A. D. 1700 no Isle of Man fisherman would sail without salt in his pocket. Tweed fishermen salt their nets and throw salt in the sea to blind fairies. Holland, to upset a salt-cellar is to capsize a boat. Scotch fairies eat no salt. The ghosthaunted sailor was freed from the phantoin by a draught of salt and water.10 In Scotland (1629), large quantities of salt used to be put with an animal in a grave to drive away the cattle plague."1 So also in Scotland, Ireland, and England, a plate of salt used to be laid on the corpse's breast to keep off evil spirits, 12 In North. England and in Spain, it is unlucky to give salt out of a
Folk-Lore Record, Vol. II. p. 280.
39 Cameron's Across Africa, Vol. I. p. 269.
$1 Denham and Clapperton's Africa, Vol. II. p. 171.
95 Clarke's Travels in Greece, Vol. IV. p. 8.
Park's Travels, Vol. I. p. 280, Hay's Western Barbary, p. 97.
92 Bancroft, Vol. III. p. 406.
Moore's Oriental Fragments, p. 311.
85 Moncure Cenway's Demonology and Devil-Lore, Vol. II. p. 297. Zool. Myth, Vol. I. p. 300.
97 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. III. p. 1076. Dalyell's Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 99.
Notes and Queries, Fifth Series, Vol. IX. p. 65. 100 Op. cit. p. 313.
1 Notes and Queries, Fifth Series, Vol. VI. p. 364. 3 Op. cit. Vol. III. p. 1049.
2 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. III. p. 1118. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 238. This is also a North of England belief. Dyer's Folk-Lore, pp. 218, 1273; Sussex Folk-Lore Record, Vol. I. p. 12.
5 Golden Manual, p. 791.
Op. cit. p. 674.
7 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 165.
Bassett's Sea Legends, p. 438. Folk-Lore Record, Vol. II. p. 209, explains from Newcastle that the reason the Tweed fishermen salt their nets is that if the nets are not salted fairies come and pull out the fish.
10 Op. cit. p. 9.
Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 125.
11 Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 85.
12 Balfour's Encyclopædia, Vol. V. p. 87; Hone's Table Book, Vol. I. p. 523; Napier's Folk-Lore, p. 60: Gregor's Echo from an Olden Time, p. 139; Guthrie's Old Scottish Customs, p. 212; Dalyeli's Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 102,
