SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF WINNEBAGO INDIANS. 
37 
as follows, ‘My soldier, I am offering you tobacco, for my 
people have been smitten with disease.’ Then the latter 
rises and thanks him. He then informs all his clansmen and 
they give a feast. Then, of those participating, a number of 
males and females are selected, who on the next day, accompan- 
ied by the leader, go around the village four times. If a dog 
crosses their path, they kill it. After they have made the fourth 
circuit, they enter the village from the east end. They there- 
upon visit the sick individuals one after another, dance in their 
presence, and lay their hands upon them. After they have 
visited all the sick, they go to the chief’s lodge, where a feast 
is spread for them by the chief’s people. The next day all 
those who had been ill become well.” 
Here the Bear clan behaves at the same time like a cere- 
monial organization associated with shamanistic practices 
and like an individual shaman. That, to the minds of the Win- 
nebago, this ceremonial function of the Bear clan on this occa- 
sion was regarded as a real ceremony is indicated by the term 
many pe waci . For the moment, the Bear clan as a social 
unit is entirely lost sight of. Nevertheless, it is the Bear 
clan as such a unit around which the ceremony has crystallized. 
This case is all the more instructive for the very reason that this 
ceremonial association does not form an inextricable element 
in the clan complex, but is merely an aspect that it assumes on 
certain occasions, to the exclusion of its socio-political nature. 
The ceremonial function of the clan is, therefore, not as firmly 
fixed as is the political function. This may merely be an 
expression of the fact that among the Winnebago it had become 
customary to associate ceremonial functions with religious 
societies. 
With regard to the analogy with the individual shaman, it 
might be said that treating a social unit like an individual 
must have been quite common wherever the former was strongly 
marked off by specific functions such as the Bear clan. The 
association of the shamanistic function with this clan may 
have occurred just because of the police functions the clan 
already possessed. On the other hand, it might be pointed 
out that the bear, both black and grizzly, was intimately 
