Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/258

244 to the importance of salt in the financial system of the Mongol emperors. The substance stood as well for costliness, as, "He paid a salt price for it."

Another ancient practice connected with salt is alluded to in the Bible, Ezekiel, xvi, 4: "Thou wast not salted at all."

This refers to the custom of salting the skin of newborn babes. The operation was supposed to make the epidermis dry, tight, and firm. Galen speaks of the practice. It may also have been emblematic of purity and incorruption.

Superstitions concerning salt are widely scattered over the world. When the Chinese observe the last festival of the year, literally called "rounding the year," a portion of the ceremony consists in building a bonfire of pine wood before the ancestral tablets of the family. Upon the flames salt is thrown, and the crackling which it occasions is regarded as an omen of good luck for the following year.

The mountain people of North Carolina and West Virginia are said to put salt in their shoes in order to keep off the witches. Bancroft related that one of the aboriginal tribes of North America refrained from eating salt in the belief that it turned the hair white.

Several curious customs, founded upon the ancient religious significance of salt, survived until a recent date. Such was the Eton Montem, or procession of the "Eton" boys to Salt Hill. Certain boys in fancy costumes went first, in order to levy contributions on the passers-by. These donations were devoted to the maintenance of their captain at college, and all who gave received a pinch of salt in return. Another well-known college custom, that of salting the freshmen before they were entitled to join in games with the others, may have had something to do with the naming of the new students; or it may, on the other hand, have been instituted as a boyish joke because of the name already given.

Though in some portions of America salt was introduced by Europeans, yet there were many parts where the mineral was accessible, and a number of native tribes besides the Aztecs held it in high veneration. One of the professors who recently visited the Zuñi villages on behalf of the Smithsonian tells of a curious custom of the people which, I believe, has not been published hitherto. The Zuñis, when organizing an expedition to go after salt, fit out a war party and take provisions greatly in excess of their wants for the time during which they will be gone. Since there is no object to be served by a war party in times of peace, it has been conjectured