[227] Macrae, in _Asiatic Researches_, VII., 188; cited in Spencer's _Descriptive Sociology_, V. 25. An old English custom of having a salt-cellar at a certain point on the family table, and of seating those present above or below it, gave rise to the phrase "sitting below the salt" as indicative of an inferior position at the household table. As salt was a symbol of hospitality and of covenanted union, he who was within the scope of salt-sharing at a table was in a very different position from one who was outside of it. A reference to this custom by Sir Walter Scott, in his "Tales of My Landlord," in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, provoked much discussion, and doubt was expressed as to the existence of the custom in olden time. But abundant evidence was produced as to its veritableness.[228] An old English ballad was cited, in which one said sneeringly to his inferior: "Thou art a carle mean of degree, Ye salte doth stand twain me and thee; But an thou hadst been of ane gentyl strayne, I wold have bitten my gant[229] aganie." [228] See _Blackwood's Magazine_, Vol. I., No. 1, pp. 33-35; 132-134; 349-352; 579-582. [229] Gant; that is, glove. And one of Bishop Hall's Satires, in 1597, was instanced as saying: "A gentle squire would gladly entertaine Into his house some trencher chaplaine; Some willing man that might instruct his sons, And that would stande to good conditions. First, that he lie upon the truckle-bed, Whiles his young maister lieth o'er his head. Second, that he do, on no default, Ever presume to sit above the salt." It was a custom in Oxford University to give salt to a student who had concluded his course as a "freshman," and was finding admission into the company of maturer, or salter, students or sophisters. Drinking salt and water, or salt and beer, was a part of this ceremony. It was called "salting a freshman," or "college salting."[230] [230] See _Notes and Queries_, First Series, I., 261. A series of plates, illustrative of certain student ceremonies at Strassburg University was published in 1666. "The last [of these] represents _the giving of the salt_,--which a person is holding on a plate in his left hand, and with his right hand is about to put a pinch of it upon the tongue of each _becanus_, or freshman. A glass, probably holding wine, is standing near him. Underneath is the following couplet: "_Sal Sophiæ gustate, bibatis vinaque læta, Augeat immensus vos in utrisque Deus!_"[231] [231] _Ibid._, I., 492.