NO SALT | Music and Childhood

No Salt

In the far–off kingdom of Byzogonia the King was sitting on his throne eating his breakfast.

He was eating Porridge and Bread and Butter. He said to his Butler,”there is no salt in the porridge. There is no salt on the bread-and-butter.” I cannot eat Porridge without salt. I cannot eat bread-and-butter without salt.

The Butler went to the Steward and said: “There is no salt. The King needs salt.” The Steward went to the Cook in the Royal Kitchen.

The Royal Kitchen had a work table to cut meat and dice vegetables. It also had a fireplace.

The Steward said there is no salt. The King needs salt.” The Cook said: “I have no salt.” So the Steward called for his Golden Coach with six horses, and set out for the town to get salt. He was accompanied by ten soldiers.

They crossed the drawbridge.

And then the Golden Carriage proceeded amidst the cheering and curious crowds.

The Steward came to the town of Byzogonia and went right to the market where fruits and vegetables, grains and beans, milk and cheese were brought for all to buy. Byzogonia was a very rich country, and the town of Byzogonia was very rich because of all the products brought into it from the country-side. So the Steward went straight to the spice store, which kept all sorts of spices for sale. There was cinnamon and oregano and basil and curry and turmeric and black pepper and white pepper and garlic . There was Rosemary, Chive, Parsley, Dill, and Nutmeg. Each spice was in its own bag, lined up on the floor next to the wall.

Here are the spices ground up and on display for the customers.

The Steward went to the storekeeper and he asked for salt. The storekeeper said “There is no salt.”

The Steward said: “No salt? Oy Gevalt, what are we going to do?” So the Steward went back to his Golden Coach with Six Horses and his ten soldiers and they returned to the castle with bugles blowing and flags raised in the air.

The entrance to the Castle was lowered down and the coach came into the Castle.

The Steward got out of the coach and went straight to the King. “There is no salt in the Kingdom” he said. “No salt?” cried out the King. “Summon the Admiral of the Navy,” said the King. So the Admiral was summoned.

The King said: ” there is no salt in the kingdom and I cannot finish my porridge and my bread-and-butter. Fetch six strong, sea-worthy ships, outfit them with barley and beans and potatoes so that they can take a long voyage to the land of Egypt because there you can get salt.”

So the Admiral collected his six ships and he put sixty sailors on each ship.

They loaded barley and beans and potatoes so that the sailors would have food for the journey and they set sail.

An open sack of barley looked like this:

The workers placed the barley and beans in barrels. They loaded the barrels onto the ships.

And the King’s flags were flying in all colors from the top of the Masts and of course, the great flag of Byzogonia. And they sailed and they sailed.

They crossed the Black Sea

and they sailed the Mediterranean Sea.

And all the time they had sunny skies.

They came to famous port of Alexandria.

The Admiral with ten soldiers went off the boat and walked to the Shuk.

They went from one shop in the shuk to the next shop in the shuk. They said: “We want to buy salt.” Each shopkeeper replied. “There is no salt” So the Admiral was very sad. But one shopkeeper said that you must go to Cairo and there you will surely find salt. So the Admiral hired a Caravan and he took sixty sailors with him and they set off for Cairo.

On the way they were attacked by Robbers.

They came with swords swinging in the air and the sailors turned the Caravan into a circle to protect all of the travelers and they went out to fight the Robbers – and they scared them away.

And so the Caravan continued on its way to Cairo. Here is beautiful, ancient Cairo:

Finally the Admiral came to the Shuk.

The Admiral asked the first shop owner if he had salt, and the shop owner answered:” There is no salt.” So he asked the second shop owner if he had salt and the shop owner said: “there is no salt!” And so it went, for there was no salt in all of Cairo.

But there was one place where he could find salt, the shop owners told the Admiral. He must travel west some 151 kilometers to The Natron Valley and there they surely have salt, for that is the source of Egyptian salt.

The Natron Valley has 8 lakes in the region. These lakes are the main source for salt mining.

So the Admiral re-stocked his Caravan with food and water and they set out Westward towards the Natron Valley. There the people told the Admiral that he must travel another 560 kilometers to The Siwa Oasis, 800 km to the west of Cairo.

And there the admiral and his men discovered the beautiful lakes of Siwa.

The Siwa Oasis had many salt lakes. There was Lake Zatoun, Lake Agurmi in the northeast of the oasis. The Lake of Al-Maraqi to the west of the Oasis. And more. The lakes were so pure and clean that the sailors decided to undress and float in the salt lakes.

But then the Admiral got angry with his men and said they must get dressed immediately so that they could buy salt. So the sailors got dressed and they followed the Admiral into the Shuk.

The Admiral went into the first shop in the Shuk and said: “I want to buy salt.” The shopkeeper said: “I have salt. How much do you want?” “I need ten sacks of salt” said the Admiral. The shopkeeper called down to his workers. “Achmud and Mohammed, bring up ten sacks of salt immediately.”

They brought up the sacks of salt from the cellar. The sailors loaded the sacks onto the camels.

The Admiral paid the shopkeeper with fifty pieces of gold, and the shopkeeper was very happy.

Here are the Gold Pieces which the Admiral paid to the shopkeeper.

So the Caravan set out.

They traveled back to Cairo and that took three days.

In Cairo they got more water and food. Their caravan then went north back to Alexandria

They arrived in Alexandria.

They took the ten sacks of salt and loaded them onto the ships.

Since there were six ships, they loaded one sack onto the first ship. They loaded the next sack on the second ship. They loaded two sacks onto each of four ships. “If there were to be a storm” the Admiral said to himself, then if one ship goes down to the bottom of the sea, the others will be saved and maybe we can bring the King eight sacks or nine sacks of salt.

And so they set sail, with flags flying and sails a blaze in the sun.

And they traveled two nights and then suddenly there was a terrible storm, with thunder and with wind, and the ships rocked in the water, and rolled with the waves.

The mast of one vessel cracked and fell onto the deck of the ship and before anyone knew it, before anyone could say “skipper-skapper”, the ship went down.

The ship sank to the bottom of the sea and two sacks of salt went with it. All of the sixty sailors of the ship had to jump off and swim to the other five ships still floating in the water.

But finally the storm subsided and the sea became calm. The sun came up from over the Eastern horizon and a new day had begun. The ships set sail and they returned to the Black Sea and from thence to the port of Byzogonia.

There all of the people of Byzogonia came out to greet them. Trumpets sounded and flags waved and the eight sacks of salt which were saved from the storm were loaded on eight donkeys and they paraded up to the King’s castle.

The castle drawbridge came down and the procession entered.

All eight sacks of salt were taken immediately to the Kitchen, where the Cook made new porridge and new bread-and-butter for the King.

The Cook was very careful to put salt into the porridge and onto the bread-and-butter. The Cook gave the prepared breakfast to the Steward who brought it to the Butler who brought it to the King