. Cf. the Greek
[Greek: kourotrophos]. In Japan the early system of supernatural beings
has been obscured by the great religions of the later time--Shinto in
its developed form, and Buddhism--but the indications are that the
general term _kami_, a designation of all supernatural things, included
local deities.[1082]

+646+. It is not clear how early the practice began of giving these
beings proper names. In the lowest known tribes we meet descriptive
titles such as "old one," "grandfather," "grandmother"; and so among
some civilized peoples, as the Semites, whose local deities are often
known simply as _baals_ ('possessors,' 'lords'), sometimes as lords of
particular places, as, for example, the Arabic Dhu ash-Shara (Dusares),
'lord of the Shara.' A god identified with a particular object may be
called by its name; so 'Heaven' is said to have become the proper name
of a Huron deity (cf. Zeus, Tien, Shangti).[1083] Names of Pawnee gods
are Bright Star (Evening Star), Great Star (Morning Star), Motionless
One (North Star), and many other such; the Navahos have The Woman Who
Changes (apparently the changing year), White Shell Woman, Child of
Water;[1084] the Kolarian Sunthals, Great Mountain;[1085] the Brazilian
Arawaks, River-born.[1086] A proper name becomes necessary as soon as
definite social relations with a god are established. Divine names in
civilized religions, of remote origin, are often inexplicable.

+647+. Among the simple clan gods divinized men should be included. In
many parts of the world, as is remarked above, chiefs and other great
personages are regarded as divine; this attribution of divinity is a
part of that general early conception according to which there was an
element of power in all things, naturally embodied in a special way in
important men. This sort of divinization is particularly prominent in
Melanesia and parts of Polynesia; it exists also in Japan and in West
Africa. As a rule it is only the recently dead that are thus regarded as
divine objects of worship, and the cult would thus be substantially a
part of the worship of ancestors; but such divinized men frequently
bore a peculiarly intimate relation to the clan or community and became
specific protectors.[1087] So far as their origin is concerned, this
class of divine patrons differs essentially from the old clan god, whose
genesis probably belongs to a remote antiquity and is based on the
general consciousness of some powerful influen