Salt in traditions and rites of Bashkir

The article is based on materials from the authors’ field expeditions and folklore sources, and reveals the significance of the most important mineral - salt - in the traditional culture of the Bashkirs. The Bashkirs have long used salt from the Iletsk deposit, which was located on the patrimonial lands of the Bashkirs; until the middle of the 18th century they used it for free, for which they paid yasak to the treasury. The authors consider the everyday, pharmacological, religious aspects of the use of salt among the Bashkirs. A special perception of salt was well reflected in the Bashkir vocabulary, in which there are many stable expressions with the word «тоҙ» (bash. ‘salt’), for example: «тоҙһоҙ» (‘meaningless’, literally «unsalted»), «тоҙ күҙ» (‘meaningless look, eyes’, literally «salt eyes»), «тоҙ һипкән кеүек» (‘attractive’, literally «like sprinkled with salt»), «һаҡы тоҙло» («very expensive in price», literally «salty price»).