[4] Mooney, ‘Myths of the Cherokee,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xix. 257, 442.
Nor is it to supernatural danger only that a person exposes himself by irreverence to a god, but in many cases he is also punished by his fellow men. On the Slave Coast insults to a god “are always resented and punished by the priests and worshippers of that god, it being their duty to guard his honour.”[5] Among the ancient Peruvians[6] and Hebrews,[7] as also among Christian nations up to comparatively recent times, blasphemy was a capital offence. In England, in the reign of Henry VIII., a boy of fifteen was burned because he had spoken, much after the fashion of a parrot, some idle words affecting the sacrament of the altar, which he had chanced to hear but of which he could not have understood the meaning.[8] According to Muhammedan law a person guilty of blasphemy is to be put to death without delay, even though he profess himself repentant, as adequate repentance for such a sin is deemed impossible.[9] These and similar laws are rooted in the idea that the god is personally offended by the insult. It was the Lord himself who made the law that he who blasphemed His name should be stoned to death by all the congregation.[10] “Blasphemy,” says Thomas Aquinas, “as being an offence directly against God, outweighs murder, which is an offence against our neighbour…. The blasphemer intends to wound the honour of God.”[11] That blasphemy is, or should be, punished not as a sin against the deity but as an offence against the religious feelings of men, is an idea of quite modern origin.
[5] Ellis, Ew̔e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 81.
[6] Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru, i. 42.
[7] Leviticus, xxiv. 14 sqq.
[8] Pike, History of Crime in England, ii. 56.
[9] Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 123.
[10] Leviticus, xxiv. 16.
[11] Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica, ii.-ii. 13. 3. 1.
In many cases it is considered offensive to a supernatural being merely to mention his name. Sometimes the name is tabooed on certain occasions only or in ordinary conversation, sometimes it is not to be pronounced at all.