This legend has the roots of the custom of feeding jackals by those willing to start a journey to cross the great desert.
According to a legend, over hundred years ago, a reclusive pir named panchmai walked across these salt wastes, his only companion a jackal.
[1] Anyone who wants to start a journey to cross the great desert, first pays homage to the footprints of the panchmai pir on the hilltop.
If the jackals turn up and eat up the food, it is considered auspicious.
KN Daruwala's short story Love Across the Salt Desert is based on it.