in antiquity, festivals kept in honour of Venus, the most remarkable of which was that celebrated by the Cyprians. At this solemnity several mystic rites were practised: all who were initiated to them offered a piece of money to Venus as a harlot, and received as a token of the goddess's favour a measure of salt, and a garland; the former, because salt is a concretion of sea-water, to which Venus was thought to owe her birth; the latter, because she was the goddess of wantonness.