2. _Shell Society._—In the Shell Society of the Omaha there is no specific initiation ceremony. According to the origin legend, an animal appears to a family consisting of father, mother, and four children, and helps them to obtain food. They, in order to show their gratitude, offer him their children. The children are subsequently shot and killed. As they lie on the shore of a lake, four tremendous waves sweep them away. They afterwards emerge from the midst of the lake, and assure their parents that, although they are dead, they are quite content, and they would advise them to put off their mourning, return to their own tribe, and form a society. They could obtain new members by selling to other people the powers they had obtained. The shooting that occurs in the ceremony proper, and which is interpreted by the Omaha as a dramatic representation of the shooting of the four children, has nothing to do with initiation into the society. Initiation consists entirely in the transference of certain knowledge and symbols by one of the owners of the society to any individual who is considered eligible, and who has paid the requisite price. As a matter of fact, only members are shot. The shooting, whatever may have been its original significance, is here but one element in an intricate ritualistic complex similar to the basic ritual of the Winnebago Medicine Dance. Its purpose seems to be exclusively that of “strengthening” the powers of the members. Anything approaching the dramatic initiation into the Midewiwin does not exist. Admission into the society is in no way connected with the shooting ritual, although the shooting ritual is actually found in the society. 3. _Pebble Society._—The nature of initiation into the Pebble Society is not definitely known. As membership, however, depends upon supernatural communications from the same animal, it probably is the same as that found among other Omaha societies of the same kind. Initiation would thus consist in the obtaining of the supernatural communication itself. Every person who has had a supernatural communication with a spirit—in this particular case, the water spirit—is eligible for membership into the society. Shooting is found, but it is in no way connected with admission or initiation into the society. It has, it would seem, practically the same significance as in the Shell Society.