Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/74

 64 the moment they begin the entire social organisation is changed. "Instead of being grouped in clans, the Indians are now grouped according to the spirits which have initiated them. All those who are protected by" one spirit "form one group; those who stand under" another spirit "form another group," and so on; "and in these groups divisions are made according to the ceremonies or dances bestowed upon the person. . . . During this period the place of the clans is taken by a number of societies, namely: the groups of all those individuals upon whom the same, or almost the same, power or secret has been bestowed by one of the spirits." This astonishing development must have results on the social life of the people which would be still more remarkable, were it not that the dances and the offices connected with them are still to a large extent hereditary or acquired by marriage. Hence the clan system, though greatly disturbed and dislocated, is not in effect altogether set aside. Only certain persons have a right to be initiated in each society. The initiations are not performed by the other members assembled in meeting, as is the case with really secret societies. The candidate goes alone into the woods, remaining there for a certain period, during which any one who finds him may kill him if he can, and thereupon may take his place. While the candidate is absent, he is initiated by the spirit. And "the object of the whole winter ceremonial is, first, to bring back the youth who is supposed to stay with the supernatural being who is the protector of his society, and then, when he has returned in a state of ecstacy, to exorcise the spirit which possesses him and to restore him from his holy madness. These objects are attained by songs and by dances." The proceeding is, in fact, an adaptation of the acquisition of the manitou by the Indians of the prairies.