1. _Ojibwa._—The Ojibwa Midewiwin consists of a long course of preparation, and a formal public initiation into a society containing four degrees. We have seen that the preparation is entirely shamanistic in character, and that the general public ceremony is to all intents and purposes as much an initiation into the status of a mide as it is into a society. This interpretation is again strengthened by the marked association of the general ceremony with shamanistic tricks. Among the Cree it appears that this function of the Midewiwin is of prime importance.[21] In the “degrees” we have another confirmation of its shamanistic character. The four degrees are merely the four instalments in which an old shaman sells his knowledge and power. The number 4 has no especial significance, except in so far as it is the sacred number of the tribe. Miss Densmore[22] found eight degrees among another division of the Ojibwa; and the number will doubtless be found to vary from division to division. The requirements for admission into the second, third, and fourth degrees, are greater payments, and greater evidences of religious fitness. The possessors of the various degrees do not form distinct classes. Those of the first degree alone, possess one degree only. There is no passing from one to another degree, but simply an addition of degrees, so that an individual with the fourth degree possesses all the other degrees; in other words, degrees are merely marks of increased power. It is for this reason that an initiation practically the same as that for the first degree is necessary for the other degrees. The fact that a new initiation into the society is necessary for each degree, and that the distinctions represented by the degrees are merely transferences of increased shamanistic powers, differing accordingly as they have been obtained from one or another shaman, emphasizes strongly the specific shamanistic nature of the Midewiwin. As we have said before, the Midewiwin is a society, not so much because it is an association of mide, but because there have come to be associated with it certain functions of a religious and social nature, setting it off as a unit. The fact that the members are mide will, of course, have an enormous influence on some of the functions that the society is supposed to possess.