1. _Initiation._—It was our main purpose, in analyzing the above ceremonies, to examine them quite apart from any theoretical presuppositions. In so proceeding, we obtained as a resultant the fact that initiation connoted psychologically and historically a number of different things, and that this difference seemed dependent upon the historical and psychological individuality of each tribe. To Schurtz, however, initiation meant primarily an initiation into puberty, and into that social status with which puberty has been so long and closely associated,—an association that seemed, historically speaking, almost an ultimate complex; namely, initiation into the tribe. He assumes that if it is found to mean anything else, then this new meaning is either a secondary association, or, preferably, an historical development from the first conception. Carried out logically, we should therefore have to consider initiation into a masonic order or into a college fraternity as a transformation of an original tribal initiation. To this, I think, Schurtz would have taken serious exception, on the ground that we are here dealing with a purely rational and artificial social group. But are we not to a certain extent dealing with the same phenomenon in the primitive societies discussed? In examining a phenomenon such as initiation, we must not forget that it is, in a general way, absolutely conditioned by the specific individuality of one man as opposed to that of another. The desire of one man for participation in the possessions of another, or in those of some differentiated group, is an ultimate fact for which we need give no explanation. What is essential for our discussion is the realization that the methods of this participation are infinite, depending entirely upon the influence of cultural factors in the development of specific areas, and of institutions within them. Thus initiation into the Midewiwin is the transfer of certain mide powers; into the Pebble and other Omaha Societies, a common vision; into the Medicine Dance, the transfer of certain knowledge. This transfer or initiation is in no way different from that which takes place between two individuals, except that in the former case we are dealing with phenomena between an individual on the one hand, and a group of individuals on the other. This conception of initiation has become associated everywhere with social and ceremonial groups. One may, for instance, be initiated into a clan, into a name, into a family, etc.