ABSTRACT
THERE are many tribes of savages who eat no salt.74 Some of those among whom I was a prisoner ate salt, which they had seen in use among the Frenchmen who traded with them. But they told me of a nation called Karaya, whose country adjoins their own, lying inland from the sea, who make salt from palm trees and eat it, but those who partook of it to excess did not live long. They prepare the salt as follows, for I saw and helped them to do it. They cut down a thick palm tree and split it up into small pieces. Then they make a stand of dried wood upon which they lay the pieces and burn them to ashes. From the ashes they make a solution which they boil until the salt is separated. I thought at first it must be saltpetre, and I tried it in the fire, but it was not. It tasted like salt and was grey in colour. But the majority of the savages eat no salt.
