By far the most interesting ceremony associated with the Shell Society is that for punishing offenders.[26] The main purpose seems to be the punishment of an individual “in order to keep the people in order and check crime, such as molesting wives or daughters and destroying property and so causing mischief in the tribe.” This was effected through a sacred figure supposed to represent the society.... “The arms contained poisons for punishment, and the leg the magic shells which made it possible to administer this punishment.... When a man committed an offence that seemed to demand punishment, the society met at night, and if it had determined to punish the man, then this figure was brought out.”[27] Now, it must be borne in mind that there is here no suggestion of any legal procedure, but merely, as we shall see, an application of the magical powers of the society to a very specific social purpose. Punishment consisted in causing the offender to become sick through the application of poison to a figure supposed to symbolize him, which is drawn on the earth. This figure was subsequently shot at. When the ceremony was over, the leaders waited until they had been informed that the offender had become sick, when they assembled in a tent and sang until the man died. In this ceremony we have again a shamanistic practice which was probably exercised by many members of the tribe, associated in one of the societies with a definite and specific function. But this specific function, plus the other traits that have been enumerated as characteristic of the society, go to make up a complex that is looked upon as a definite unit. 4. _Pebble Society._—The remarks made on the purpose of the Shell Society are, generally speaking, applicable to the Pebble Society. Instead of being attached to a shell, the magical powers are here attached to a translucent pebble. The possibility for a greater variability in the nature of the powers obtained was given by the fact that all those who had had a vision of water, or its representative, the pebble or the water-spirit, could become members. The water-spirit was always associated with the granting of knowledge relating to medicinal herbs and the power of healing sickness generally; and we find in the society, consequently, a large preponderance of individuals with such powers. The association between these powers and some definite object, in this case the pebble, is not as intimate as that found to exist between corresponding powers and a similar object in the Shell Society; in other words, the shaman, as an individual, is more prominent. The most important association of the society is that connected with the curing of disease. It would be erroneous to consider this function as a secondary association, as it is conditioned by the fact that the visions from the water-spirit would necessarily be connected with “the powers” relating to medicinal herbs and their healing virtues.