914 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XXXVII. No. 963 



nor Dorsey should have recognized the name 

 as the Dakota term for " fox " or " kit-fox." 

 Most of the secret societies were entered by 

 virtue of a dream or vision, those having re- 

 ceived a revelation from some particular su- 

 pernatural power being united in the same or- 

 ganization. This does not, however, apply to 

 the Shell society, into which persons were ad- 

 mitted by unanimous consent of the members. 

 All the offices in the last-mentioned society 

 were obtained by purchase; in the other or- 

 ganizations this element, which plays so im- 

 portant a part among several of the Plains 

 tribes, does not seem to be pronounced. So- 

 cieties composed exclusively of women have 

 not been found among the Omaha (p. 459), 

 but women were evidently prominent in the 

 Shell society, and tradition states that in 

 early times its principal leader was a woman 

 (p. 516). The Shell and the Pebble societies 

 perform shamanistic practises, of which a 

 " shooting " ceremony common to both recalls 

 the Midewiwin of the Central Algonkian, and 

 the authors incline to the opinion that the two 

 societies are historically related. From the 

 fact that the Pebble rituals deal with " more 

 fundamental conceptions " than the origin 

 myth of the Shell society they infer that, 

 granting the relationship, the Pebble society 

 is the older of the two (p. 529). Indeed, there 

 is evidence that at least one of the elements of 

 the Shell performance, the use of a swan wing, 

 has been borrowed from the Pebble society 

 (p. 519) ; and the description of the " shell " 

 as a round stone in one of the ritualistic songs 

 (p. 529) is interpreted by the authors as 

 pointing in the same direction. Nevertheless, 

 it is quite possible for one society to have bor- 

 rowed special features from another without 

 being necessarily of later origin in the total- 

 ity of its traits. As for the relatively more 

 fundamental character of the Pebble society, 

 the authors do not explain what may be their 

 criterion of greater antiquity or primitiveness. 

 One thing is clear: the comparison of the 

 ritual of one organization with the origin 

 myth of another is unjustifiable, though con- 

 sistent with the authors' belief that the Shell 

 society was founded upon the myth accounting 



for its origin (p. 516). Such a view has be- 

 come less and less tenable as proof has accu- 

 mulated in different areas that ritual is pri- 

 mary and ritualistic myth secondary. 



While the evidence for the greater antiquity 

 of the Pebble society is thus inconclusive, the 

 authors' opinion on the historical connection 

 between the Pebble and Shell organizations 

 seems to me correct. It has been challenged 

 by Radin," but apparently on the basis of a 

 single loose and misleading statement by the 

 authors, viz., 



As these two societies are tlie only ones in th« 

 tribe whicli observe sliamanistic practises and as 

 they both strongly emphasize magic, it is not 

 impossible that at one time they may have been 

 connected (p. 581). 



Radin quite properly objects that the ob- 

 servance of shamanistic tricks is too general a 

 phenomenon to warrant the conclusion and 

 that it is unnecessary to assume any historical 

 connection " unless this has been shown to be 

 the case." The authors certainly should have 

 defined what they meant by " shamanistic," 

 but it seems clear that they do not use the term 

 in the accepted sense but with some specific 

 connotation. For to nearly every one of their 

 secret societies they ascribe what others might 

 call " shamanistic practises," yet these are 

 said to be confined to the two societies under 

 discussion. The authors have obviously ar- 

 rived at their view because common to both 

 societies are several specific features, such as 

 organization by lodges and the shooting cere- 

 mony. These features are not found in the 

 Bear and Buffalo and Ghost societies ; they are, 

 therefore, not generally phenomena of Omaha 

 life, and their double occurrence is not ex- 

 plained as a mere reflection of Omaha modes 

 of thought. Whatever may be the origin of 

 other elements of the two ceremonial com- 

 plexes, the traits mentioned have had, in all 

 probability, a common origin. 



The foregoing paragraphs have pointed out 

 with sufficient clearness the character of Miss 

 Fletcher and Mr. La Flesche's book. The au- 



" ' ' The Eitual of the Winnebago Medicine 

 Dance," Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXIV. 

 (1911), p. 191. 



