Chapter 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."