Tuesday 22 June 2010

Salt


I was unpacking the things I've just bought in the market today, including a pack of salt (although I should stop having salt, but apparently this is very hard to do) and I am wondering how many kilos of salt have we had together in these 25 years and how many more are we going to have.
Salt is one of those small and meaningful things in our every-day life and it was always seen as important. Remember our tradition of welcoming guests with bread and salt? And there is the phrase, mostly used in tales: "if you do that, we will never have bread and salt together", an archaic warning for a close friend who's about to do something really bad. Do you have the belief that spilling salt announces a big quarrel?

Speaking of tales, there is a nice one about salt, you probably know it, as I have learned that there are really no specific things- people are the same everywhere. Here it goes.
A king had 3 daughters and no son. As he was getting old, he decided to choose as his heiress the daughter who loved him the best, so he asked them how precious he was for them. The first one answered that he was as sweet as sugar to her, the second- as sweet as honey, but the third daughter just said: I love you as the salt in my food. The king was angry for being compared to such a meaningless thing, so he banished her from his court.
The girl wandered for a while and arrived to another king's castle (as they are everywhere, right?) and she became a cook helper there. She was kind and trustworthy, so everyone liked her. Fortunately, she was the only one who managed to cure the prince who had been badly wounded in a battle, and because she had saved his life, he decided to marry her. Her father was invited too, as he was the "neighbour king", but he had no idea the bride was his daughter. Strangely for him, during the feast he noticed that all his food was sweet and therefore impossible to eat (we don't eat sweet main courses) while everybody else had normal tasty food. So, he asked for an explanation from the cook. That was the moment when the girl revealed herself and the king understood the message. He humbly apologized and the family was happily reunited and etc etc... ever after.

And finally, look at the geometry in the salt crystals. (The photo is from guardian.co.uk.)
How about small things in our daily life? How small are they really?

2 comments:

caluad said...

when we spill salt here we say the person will be unlucky.
Small crystals looks weak but they are able to move lots of people and important decisions and trade around.
Not so small, then

ivasil said...

The antidote for spilling salt is to throw some 3 of it times over your shoulder.