HOLLANDISCH u. deutsches Taschen-wörterbuch. 16mo. 4s.]



"_Salting._"--Salt is said by all writers upon magic to be particularly
disagreeable to evil spirits; and it is owing to this noxious substance
being dissolved in holy water, that it has such power in scaring them
away. Query, did not salt acquire this high character, and its use in
all sacrifices, from its powers of resisting corruption?

Salt is used emblematically in many of our foreign universities. There
is a book published at Strasburg as late as 1666, containing twenty
plates, illustrating the several strange ceremonies of the "Depositio."
The last represents _the giving of the salt_, which a person is on a
plate in his left hand; and, with his right hand, about to put _a pinch
of it_ upon the tongue of each _Becanus_ or Freshman. A glass, probably
holding wine, is standing near him. Underneath is the following
couplet:--

"_Sal Sophiæ gustate_, bibatis vinaque læta,
Augeat immensus vos in utrisque Deus!"

A copy of this rare book was sold in the Rev. John Brand's collection. I
have never seen it, and know it only from a MS. note in one of Brand's
Common Place Books now in my possession.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.