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Salt on a snake's tail

Posted by ESC on March 09, 2009 at 17:31

In Reply to: Salt on a snake's tail posted by Tanja on March 09, 2009 at 16:26:

: In "Salt on a Snake's Tail" (a story by Farrukh Dhondy) the saying "you put salt on a snake's tail and it'll never bother you again" is used. Can anyone tell me the deeper meaning? I believe it's an Asian saying.

There's a lot of magical thinking in many cultures regarding salt. Probably because salt is so vital to life. "...from time immemorial it has been used as a protection against all the forces of evil," according to "The Encyclopedia of Superstitions" by E. and M.A. Radford, edited and revised by Christina Hole, Barnes and Noble Books, 1996. First published in 1948. Page 297. Recently I was reading a vampire book (vamps are all the rage). One of the characters made a ring of salt to keep out a rampaging supernatural being. It worked.

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