and
Lamas is a product of the transformation of Buddhism under the influence
of a crude non-Aryan population that retained the old conception of the
essential identity of nature of men and gods.

+349+. When chiefs and kings are divinized, offerings are usually made
to them as to other gods; their cult becomes a part of the polytheistic
system. But it is rare that they displace the old local deities or equal
them in influence. Their worship passes with the passing of polytheism.

THE CULT OF THE DEAD

+350+. In the history of religion the veneration of the dead, as is
remarked above, is more widely diffused and more effective than that of
the living. We may distinguish between the cult of known historical
persons after death (which is closely related to that of living men),
the deification of mythical ancestors, and the worship of ghosts.

+351+. _Historical persons._ In simple communities commanding
personalities that have impressed the imagination of the people by
proofs of power and by conferring benefits on communities may not
unnaturally receive divine honors after death. Lyall reports a case of
this sort in recent times: the French officer Raymond in Hyderabad is
said to have been worshiped as a god.[648] Other cases are reported as
occuring in Samoa and in India.[649] Rivers mentions traditions among
the Todas of Southern India which, he thinks, may vouch for the worship
of gods who were originally men, but implicit reliance cannot be placed
on such traditions.[650] Two apparently definite instances of
deification are given by Ellis,[651] both of cruel kings (one dethroned
in 1818), to whom temples with complete rituals are dedicated; but the
deification in one of these cases (and probably in the other) was a
deliberate act of political leaders, and not a product of spontaneous
popular feeling. Two other local gods mentioned by Ellis were, according
to the tradition, two men who began the trade that made Whydah the chief
port of the west coast of Africa; but here also the tradition is not
perfectly trustworthy.

+352+. Egyptian kings were regularly deified after death, being
identified with Osiris; their cult, though not equal in sanctity to that
of the gods proper, was still prominent and important.[652] It is
probably to be regarded as a revision and magnification of the cult of
the dead kin, combined with the desire to honor great representative
men. No such custom is known to have existed among Semitic