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 i…