No subject

nd varied dishes of foods were put out on the table, and the people ate fro=
m the dishes nearest them.  They didn't pass the dishes up and down the tab=
le like the Walton's at Sunday supper, nor did servants come around to each=
 guest individually as became the fashion in the Victorian era.  Is this im=
pression wrong?

When full of salt, the fancy nef for salt we are discussing was a pretty he=
fty thing to pass, and if the people didn't pass the food, I think we can c=
onclude the nef didn't get passed around either.  It sat there looking pret=
ty and being heavy. This means that, if the nef is the only salt on the tab=
le, then NOBODY got salt except those folks in the middle of the table who =
happened to be near it.  Does this seem reasonable?  If so, then social ran=
k wise, being just below the salt is more useful than being up the table ne=
ar the VIP of the hall!

Given the habit of not passing the food, and the heft of the nef, I'd think=
 that either salting at table didn't happen, or people brought their own sm=
all salt dishes, just as until a certain era, they brought their own eating=
 utensils.  Whether they provided their own salt to fill the dish, or someh=
ow had their little dish filled from the larger nef, I dunno.  But it doesn=
't seem reasonable that the nef and only the nef was used to serve salt to =
a roomful of people.

Bonne


>>  > > reflecting the fact that folk above the salt were
>>>  > grand enough to be given the luxury of extra salt
>>>  if
>>>  > they wanted it- it was too expensive to be given
>>>  out
>>>  > to mere servants, other than what might be already
>>>  in
>>>  > their food.
>>
>>>  Documentation for this statement? I have never heard
>>>  that salt was not
>>>  available.
>
>Do you have any evidence? Consider that salt was used on a large
>scale for preserving meat--not likely if it was too expensive to be
>freely used for seasoning it.
>
>Assuming that "above the salt" is a medieval term, what is your
>evidence that it had anything to do with who was allowed extra salt?
>One obvious alternative was that the salt container was a convenient
>marker.






--




__________________________________________________________________
Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experien=
ce the convenience of buying online with Shop at Netscape! http://shopnow.nets=
cape.com/

Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.n=
etscape.com/