To 'eat the salt' of their masters, is used by the Persians and Hindus to imply that they are fed by their employers. This idea is found in Ezra 4:14 , where the opposers of the Jews say, "We eat the salt of the palace," as the passage is more literally translated: see margin . With reference to an infant being 'salted,' Ezekiel 16:4 , Galen records that this was done to render the skin tighter and firmer.