> > > > I'll continue to simply reject the comparision if you cannot
> > > > come up with any argument better than "they all have /sal/"
> > > > for why we should attempt to relate these.
> > >
> > > They have to with "soul", "immortality", "truth" and "the
> > > otherworld". That's why it's interesting to find out how they
> > > are related.
> >
> > "Salt", "saliva", "island", "slush" have nothing to do with those
> > topics.
>
> The guy who first proposed a connection between *saiwa- "lake" and
> *saiwala- "soul" is the one who committed the original sin. I'm
> just trying to find a semantic connection between them. The rest
> are trivial.
Re: saliva
Google is your friend.
http://tinyurl.com/yfks4hu
'The Koryak tale of the discovery of fly agaric relates that "Big-Raven had caught a whale and could not send it to its home in the sea. He was unable to lift the grass bag containing travelling-provisions for the whale. Big-Raven applied to Existence (Vahiyñin) to help him. The deity said to him: 'Go to a level place near the sea; there thou wilt find soft white stalks with spotted hats. These are the spirits Wapaq. Eat some ... and they will help thee.' Big-Raven went. Then the Supreme Being spat upon the earth, and out of his saliva the agaric appeared. Big-Raven found the fungus, ate of it and began to feel gay.... The Fly-agaric said to him: 'How is it that thou...canst not lift the bag'? 'That is right', said Big-Raven, 'I am a strong man. I shall go and lift the travelling-bag.' He went, lifted the bag at once and sent the whale home. Then the Agaric showed him how the whale was going out to sea and how he would return to his comrades. Then Big-Raven said: 'Let the Agaric remain on earth and let my children see what it will show them.'
Suck on it:
'Apparently only men ate fly agaric amongst all of these tribesmen, excepting in rare cases when a woman held the position of shaman. The method of using the mushroom varied significantly amongst the sundry tribes. The Koryak women moistened and softened the agarics in the mouth, then rolled them by hand into small sausage shapes and gave them to the men to swallow. The hot, burning taste often induced vomiting, so they were usually swallowed whole. An average dose was three mushrooms-often one large one and two smaller specimens-but up to ten or twelve were frequently ingested, when a strong and persistent effect were specifically desired. These tribesmen often chewed the plant and held it in the mouth for a long time before swallowing. Other means of using the agaric, however, involved adding it to soups, sauces, cold or warm reindeer milk or steeping it in juice of the bog wortle berry, Vaccinium uliginosum, or the willow-herb, Epilobium angustifolium. The mushroom was even, in more recent times, added to alcoholic liquors to enhance their intoxicating properties. The Kamchadals apparently fermented the Amanita-Vaccinium mixture and were reputed to "scarcely give it time to clarify, ere they invite their friends to partake of it."'
Torsten