In these new investigations, as in my former ones, I have been aided, step by step, by specialists, who have kindly given me suggestions and assistance by every means in their power. This furnishes a fresh illustration of the readiness of all scholars to aid any fresh worker in any line where their own labors render them an authority or a guide. Besides my special acknowledgments in the text and footnotes of this volume, I desire to express my indebtedness and thanks to these scholars who have freely rendered me important assistance at various points in my studies: Professor Dr. Hermann V. Hilprecht, the Rev. Drs. Marcus Jastrow, K. Kohler, and Henry C. McCook, Professor Drs. Hermann Collitz, H. Carrington Bolton, William H. Roberts, Morris Jastrow, Jr., F. K. Sanders, William A. Lamberton, W. W. Keen, William Osler, J. W. Warren, and D. C. Munro, Drs. J. Solis Cohen, Thomas G. Morton, Charles W. Dulles, Henry C. Cattell, and Frederic H. Howard, Rev. Dean E. T. Bartlett, President Robert E. Thompson, Drs. Talcott Williams, Henry C. Lea, and T. H. Powers Sailer, Messrs. Clarence H. Clark and Patterson Du Bois. This third work is to be considered in connection with the two which have preceded it in the same field. It is hoped that it will be recognized as adding an important thought to the truths brought out in those works severally. A previously published monograph on "The Ten Commandments as a Covenant of Love" is added to "The Covenant of Salt" as a Supplement, in order that it may be available to readers of this series of volumes on covenants, as a historical illustration of the subject under discussion. H. C. T. Philadelphia, _October, 1899_. CONTENTS I. PAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF A COVENANT 1 II. A COVENANT OF SALT 11 III. BIBLE REFERENCES TO THE RITE 15 IV. BREAD AND SALT 21 V. SALT REPRESENTING BLOOD 35 VI. SALT REPRESENTING LIFE 51 VII. SALT AND SUN, LIFE AND LIGHT 71 VIII. SIGNIFICANCE OF BREAD 77 IX. SALT IN SACRIFICES 81 X. SALT IN EXORCISM AND DIVINATION 97 XI. FAITHLESSNESS TO SALT 107 XII. SUBSTITUTE TOGETHER WITH REALITY 115 XIII. ADDED TRACES OF THE RITE 121 XIV. A SAVOR OF LIFE OR OF DEATH 131 XV. MEANS OF A MERGED LIFE 139 SUPPLEMENT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AS A COVENANT OF LOVE 143 INDEXES TOPICAL INDEX, 177. SCRIPTURAL INDEX, 183. I CHARACTERISTICS OF A COVENANT