To Put Salt On Their Tails
In chapter 4 of Great Expectations, Pip the narrator observes "Plenty of subjects going about them that know how to put salt upon their tails." Pip observes that adults at Christmas dinner at the house Mrs Joe, make absurd opinions about everything but nothing in particular. And it comes to little Pip and about how to control him. The church clerk Wopsle sermon was a mix of the ghost of Hamlet and the ghost of Richard the Third. But his 'ill-chosen' seemed poorly suited to the religious occasion and his particular audience. Mrs Hubble was of the opinion that the young are ungrateful, and Mr Hubble said that they are naturally vicious. Uncle Pumblechook supported Wopsle. To put salt on their tails is an old humourous expression. It means catch, control, or to get the better of someone who is difficult to catch or manage. The expression comes from the fanciful idea of putting salt on a bird's tail so that it cannot fly away, allowing you to catch it. In reality ...