Honey took the place of sugar in cookery, either the natural product (1 S 14^, Mt 3^ Lk 24*^, AV, not RV) or the artificial (/i;6smadeofgrapesordate3,descri bed above. True honey is collected by the bee. Apis fascinta (see Bke). It is found in hollows in rocks (I)t 32'», Ps 81'«) or in hollow trees (1 S 14*), from which it drops on the ground. A shrub or tree on which was a honeycomb was called nv:, a word used for honeycomb in Ca 5'. Birds, jackals, and ants would soon reduce a lion to a drj* skeleton, so that in a few days a swarm of bees might take possession of it (J g 14'). Herodotus tells us that the head of Onesilus, suspended over the gate of Amathus, became filled with honeycomb (v. 114). See also the account of the P-gj-ptian practice of killing a calf and placing it in a favourable place, when in nine days Dees swarm \vithin the carcase (Virgil, Georg. Iv. 300 ff.). Compare with this I'ythagoras' theory of the origin of bees, 0\'id, Metamorph. xv. 27.
As honey is liable to ferment, it was forbidden t« be used in any ottering to God (Lv 2"), the pre- servative material salt being used instead. Honey was one of the exports of Palestine to Tyre. Along with it is named the substance Pannao, supposed by some to be a sweetmeat. LXX translates it 'cassia,' and the Vulgate 'balsam.' In the SjTiac it is said to be millet.
At the present day honey is used by the AraU
\o sweeten cakes (Ex 16") as we use sujj.ir. It is eometiiiies, but not often, eaten by itself from the comb (.1^ 14"), or as it drops from the comb (IS 14-''). Tlie liipiid honey as it lias dropped, called <]K zuph (Pr 16-*, Ps 19"), is the best, and a cruse of this was part of the present brought by Jeroboam's wife to Ahijah (1 K 14'). Honey was brought with the other provisions to David in exile (2 S 17^), and wild honey [lii^t- Hypiov) was part of the Baptist's diet (Mt 3*). Butter and honey is expressive of a rich diet, see Burckhardt, Arabia, i. 54, but not Is T"- ~. Milk and honey are the products of a fertile land {Odi/ss. xx. 68). The ellects of a surfeit of honey are graphically described in Pr 25'". Honey is .still stored in jars or skins as of old (.ler 41*).
Salt (n'p7), eaten with food as a condiment to fla\our it (Job 6', Sir 39-*), used to preserve food, and given to cattle (Is 30'^), was extracted from the salt beds by the Dead Sea, or made by evaporation from sea water. There are masses of rock salt several miles in extent on the S.E. of the Dead Sea (Robinson, ii. 108), and the salt of Sodom is named in a Gemara ; see also Josephus, Ant. XII. iii. 3, XIII. iv. 9. Much of this salt was very im- pure, hence it sometimes lost its savour as well as its preserving power, and was cast out on the land as waste (Mt 5", Lk 14^). This was due to the rain washing out the salt and leavin" onl}- the earthy dross. Too much salt rendered the land barren, and to sow with salt meant to doom to perpetual desolation (Dt 29=^, Jg 9«, Zeph 2», Jer 17", Job 39'). Salt was to be used with all the .sacri- fices ( Lv 2", Ezk 43-', Mk 9'' TR). See II. i 449, and ^■Eneid, ii. 133. For this purpose salt was sold in the temple market; see Mail, de vsu Snlis Symbol. inrebussacris Dissert. ,Giessen, 1692; 3Iiddoth,v.Z. The addition of salt to the animal sacrilice was probably a later arrangement. See Philo, ii. 255 ; Hottinger, Jur. Heb. Leg. p. 168, and de Usu Salis in Cultu sacro, Marburg, 1706 ; Wokenius, de Salitura Oblntiortnm, 1747. Salted incense is referred to in Ex 30^. Salt is much prized, both in Syria and Egypt. A Bedawi prefers salt to sugar when both are ofFered to him. It is an emblem of hospitality ; to eat bread and salt with one is to be bound to him by ties of hospitality, a covenant of salt (Lv 2", Nu 1S'», 2 Ch 13^). A similar alliance is expressed in Ezr 4". See Niebuhr, Bcschreibung, 48 ; Baehrdt, de Foedere Salis. For the washing of infants in salt see Medicine. It is possible that the Sidonian Misrephoth-maim of Jos 11* 13' may have been a place of salt-pans where sea water was evaporated.
Hyssop (3'ix), which may be mentioned pa an accessory to the feast of Passover, though in itself not a food-stufV, is a labiate herb of inconspicuous size, which was used by the Egyptian priests for food (Porphyry, de Abstinentia, iv. 7), but is men- tioned in the Bible only as a means of aspersion, considered by Celsius to be the Hijssopits officinalis, a thyme-like plant. In Negaim, xiv. 6, there are five kinds recognized — the Greek (Origanum Smyr- yiivitm), the Egyptian (Orifinum ^gypliactim), the wild (0. Syriacum), the Cochali [Origanum maru), and the Roman (Satureja Juliana). As the hy.ssop had a firm stem and could be tied in a bundle, it was probably thi' 0. maru. Kitto conjectures that it is the poke [P/iytolocca decandra) ; but this is not a native of Palestine. Royle, Tristram, and Stanley believe it to be the caper (Capparis spinosa) ; but this does not fulfil the conditions ; it is soft, smooth, and irregularly branched, besides it is mentioned under another name as •Ti'^.s abiyondh (Ec 12', 'desire' AV, 'caperberry' RV). riie flower - buds of the caper are supposed to stimulate passion and appetite, and were eaten with vinegar along with meat as they are still ; hence the meraphorical use in the paaeage, whose