30 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



specialty — or, nowadays, sometimes to the hospital — in order to try a second 

 course of treatment. In the third instance, the witch himself may be asked to 

 undertake the treatment of his victim. (See item 7, below.) In the fourth case, 

 the initial diagnosis is discarded, and the therapist suggests that the patient 

 consult a different kind of specialist, qualified to treat the patient's real illness. 



(6) The diagnosis was basically correct hut incomplete. — If the treatment re- 

 sults in improvement, but not in a real cure, the initial diagnostician-therapist 

 declares that he cured that part of the illness that he is qualified to treat and 

 suggests that the remaining component of the patient's obviously "not straight" 

 illness be treated by another kind of specialist. This procedure may be re- 

 peated several times, since some cases of "not straight" illnesses are said to have 

 several distinct components, each coming within the scope of a different shaman's 

 powers. 



(7) We know you lewitched the patient; now you must treat him, and you 

 had better cure Mm . . . or else! — When, either immediately, or else because 

 other forms of treatment proved unsuccessful, a Mohave is thought to have been 

 bewitched by a particular shaman, the patient's relatives may put pressure on 

 the witch to cure his victim. Strictly speaking, they only express the hope that 

 the witch's better nature (hi: wantc kinyaim=heart says) will induce him to 

 cure his victim, but behind this politely worded hope is always the threat that, 

 should the alleged witch fail to cure his victim, he would be killed. Such con- 

 sultations, in which a "layman's diagnosis" is practically forced upon a shaman, 

 must be quite awkward for all concerned. Thus, whenever Kwathany Hi : wa 

 was accused of having bewitched one of his relatives and was asked to treat him, 

 he invariably burst into tears. Hivsu : Tupo : ma was, likewise, deeply hurt 

 when, while trying to treat his "nephew" Sudhu : ra (Case 44), the latter 

 accused him of having bewitched him. Other accused witches became defiant 

 (McNichols, 1944). In principle, if a witch does undertake to treat one of his 

 alleged victims, he usually does his best for his patient. If his treatment is 

 successful, the diagnosis of witchcraft is held to have been correct. However, 

 the repentant witch, who made amends by curing his victim, is not penalized in 

 any way and is paid like any other therapist, even though he simply cured an 

 illness that he himself had caused. 



(8) Maybe we had better try a physician. — ^Whenever the patient's condition 

 is desperate, and at least one attempt at shamanistie treatment did not effect 

 any improvement, the patient is taken to the hospital for diagnosis and treat- 

 ment. However, even though the Mohave may learn the scientific name of the 

 patient's illness, the hospital diagnosis does not appear to replace in their think- 

 ing the Mohave diagnosis that may have been made. Thus, only a very few, ex- 

 ceptionally well-educated and sophisticated, persons, like Hama : Utce:, say that 

 so-and-so had spinal meningitis or tuberculosis; the rest of the tribe continues 

 to afiirm that the patient suffered from whatever native disease entity he was 

 thought to have had in the first place. Finally, should the patient fail to improve 

 in the hospital, he is usually withdrawn against medical advice, partly in order 

 to try a shaman once more and partly in order to let him die in familiar sur- 

 roundings (Case 4). 



In brief, the Mohave diagnostic procedure usually involves several 

 steps, the initial, tentative diagnosis being made by the patient and his 

 family. Further diagnoses are based on the success or failure of such 

 treatments as may have been attempted. 



