s, it has to pass through a pipe at the top and is thus carried
into a small tank into which cold water is flowing. The cold makes the
steam condense into water, which runs off. The condensed water
occupies less space than the steam and so maintains the vacuum in the
pan. For a perfect vacuum the brine is boiled at less than 100 deg. F.,
while in an open pan or grainer it requires 226 deg. to boil brine. The
brine is soon so rich in salt that tiny crystals begin to form. These
are taken out and dried. If you look at some grains of table salt
through a magnifying glass, you can see that each grain is a tiny
cubical crystal. Sometimes two or three are united, and often the
corners are rounded off and worn, but they show plainly that they are
little cubes.

Most of the salt used on our tables is made by the vacuum process or
by an improved method which produces tiny flakes of salt similar to
snowflakes. The salt brine is heated to a high temperature and
filtered. In the filters the impurities are taken out, and this
process gives us very pure salt. The tiny flakes dissolve more easily
than the cubes of salt, and thus flavor food more readily.

With a few savage tribes salt is regarded as a great luxury, but with
most peoples it is looked upon as a necessity. Some of the early races
thought a salt spring was a special gift of the gods, and in their
sacrifices they always used salt. In later times to sit "above the
salt," between the great ornamental salt cellar and the master of the
house, was a mark of honor. Less distinguished guests were seated
"below the salt." To "eat a man's salt" and then be unfaithful to him
has always been looked upon as a shameful act; and with some of the
savages, so long as a stranger "ate his salt,"--that is, was a guest
in the house of any one of them,--he was safe. To "eat salt together"
is an expression of friendliness. Cakes of salt have been used as
money in various parts of Africa and Asia. "Attic salt" means wit,
because the Athenians, who lived in Attica, were famous for their
keen, delicate wit. To take a story or a statement "with a grain of
salt" means not to accept it entirely, but only to believe it
partially. When Christ told his disciples that they were "the salt of
the earth," he meant that their lives and teaching would influence
others just as salt affects every article of food and changes its
flavor. Our word "salary" comes from the Latin word _sal_, meaning
salt; and _sala