A large number of the societies among the Winnebago and Omaha are based on the common possession of revelations from the same animal. We may have a society “of those who have had communication with the Thunders,” or with the Nights, or with the Grizzly Bear, or what not. The bond of such a society is generally expressed outwardly, by the possession of some “gift” which is intimately connected with the animal, be it a head-dress, a tail, facial decorations, or the right to the use of a certain drum, etc. The only society among the Winnebago where no revelation is required for admission is the Medicine Dance. There are, however, a number of elements which connect the Medicine Dance with the other type of society so common among the Winnebago. For instance, there is an outward mark of membership; namely, the otter-skin and the “migis.”[20] On the warpath the Winnebago wraps the otter-skin around his shoulder to signify that, as a member of the Medicine Dance, he is protected from the attacks of his enemies. In the shooting ritual of the night division of the general ceremony of the Medicine Dance, and in the Medicine Feast, there are a number of features similar to those of the Winnebago Buffalo, Grizzly Bear, Night, etc., Societies. From the point of view of organization, the only difference would seem to be, that, instead of a common bond lying in a supernatural communication, it lies here in the mutual shooting. If we wished to describe the Medicine Dance in terms of Winnebago society norms, we might call it a “society of those who shoot one another.” The shooting forms an integral part of the ritualistic complex, much in the same way as do the set songs and the set speeches. In the basic ritual of the day ceremony, the shooting occurs in two combinations,—on the one hand, as an initiation-shooting-complex, set off more or less from the general ceremony; and, on the other hand, in a complex that is a repetition of one which occurs at night, and which forms unquestionably the basic portion of the entire Medicine Dance. We will return to a discussion of this subsequently. Shooting in the Omaha Pebble and Shell Societies is associated precisely in the same manner as in the basic ritual of the Medicine Dance. In the Pebble Society we have, as a matter of fact, exactly the condition which we assumed might perhaps be the correct interpretation of the Medicine Dance. The society is named “Those who shoot the Pebble.” In the Shell Society the bond of union is similarly the shooting, the society being called “Those who shoot with a Shell.”