[212] Plutarch, Numa, x. 5.
[213] Aulus Gellius, op. cit. x. 15. 31.
[214] Aeschylus, Eumenides, 232 sqq.
CHAPTER XLIX
DUTIES TO GODS (concluded)
SUPERNATURAL beings are widely believed to have a feeling of their worth and dignity. They are sensitive to insults and disrespect, they demand submissiveness and homage.
”The gods of the Gold Coast,” says Major Ellis, “are jealous gods, jealous of their dignity, jealous of the adulation and offerings paid to them; and there is nothing they resent so much as any slight, whether intentional or accidental, which may be offered them…. There is nothing that offends them so deeply as to ignore them, or question their power, or laugh at them.”[1] The wrath of Yahveh burst forth with vehemence whenever his honour or sanctity was in the least violated, however unintentionally.[2] Many peoples consider it insulting and dangerous merely to point at one of the celestial bodies;[3] and among the North American Indians it is a widespread belief that, if anybody points at the rainbow, the finger will wither or become misshapen.[4]
[1] Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, p. 11.
[2] Cf. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews, pp. 38, 102.
[3] Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 341, Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 344 (Chippewas). Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, § 11, p. 13 sq.