Bearing this in mind, the similarities in the association of the Midewiwin of the Ojibwa-Menominee, the Medicine Dance of the Winnebago, and the Shell and Pebble Societies of the Omaha, do not necessarily indicate an historical relationship, but would most likely tend to show that a number of ideas and customs were common to a large cultural area. This does not of course interfere in the least with the possibility of an historical connection, but this historical connection must in each case be demonstrated. However, even if it were proved, an historical connection alone cannot possibly explain the entire phenomenon; for the cultural environment, if it is the same, will condition general similarities and resemblances in ceremonies that historically are quite unrelated, so that the convergent evolution thus resulting will completely obscure at times the individual history of a ceremony. It is, for instance, possible that historically the journey to the spirit land was connected with the wake among the Winnebago. The general prevalence of the same idea among so many social and ceremonial groups to-day, however, makes it unjustifiable to assume such a connection in the absence of any direct historical data; so that, although there is to my mind little doubt that these associations are all historically different, owing to the influence of certain general cultural ideas, they present to-day the same picture. It is quite safe to assume that, just as we have shown that the shooting ceremony in the Medicine Dance is the borrowed initiation ritual of the Midewiwin, so it would be possible to demonstrate, were we in the possession of fuller historical data, that other elements have been borrowed. However, when we have demonstrated the borrowing of a certain element, we have only partially, and often only inadequately, explained it. Its further explanation is possible only in terms of the specific type of ceremony, and of the general cultural environment with which it has been associated. Both of these may change. It does not follow that because, among the Winnebago to-day, all the societies are practically associations of individuals who have obtained supernatural communication from this or that spirit, this was therefore always the basis of the societies. To-day the Medicine Dance and the Night Spirit or Sore-Eye Dance have a different type of organization. Originally the latter had the former type, and the Medicine Dance may have had it. It is, for instance, barely possible that we may in this case be dealing with the beginning of a change of type of organization, and that, similarly, types of organization preceded that, whose essence to-day lies in the possession of common visions. * * * * *