Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 45 



The diagnosing of modern war neuroses as ahwe : ma : n is more than 

 passive acculturation, since the Mohave believe that the coming of the 

 whites and of their ways was predicted already in the age of crea- 

 tion, during which whites were referred to as tiny am kuhuya (night 

 flying), which some Mohave, who speak English well, ironically 

 translate as "fly-by -nights." 



AGAINST ANTISOCIAL MEMBERS OP THE INGBOUP : WITCH KILLEE'S PSYCHOSIS 



Tcatc described this psychosis as follows : 



In those olden days, when a person who had the power to do so caused an 

 epidemic, the braves (kwanami: hye) used to get rid of him (Kroeber, 1925 a, 

 1925 b ; Devereux, 1937 c, 1948 f ). According to the law of the white man, that 

 was murder and was not approved of among the Indians [i. e., the whites did 

 not approve of braves killing the witches (McNichols, 1944)]. Because of this, 

 there is no one nowadays to rid us of shamans who cause epidemics. Hence, 

 the Indians, or at least some of them, are now dying off from epidemics caused 

 by witchcraft, and the shamans have become very bold in threatening the Indians. 

 Anyay Harm (light passing) was one of those witches who kill off their own 

 folks, and was going to get rid of some other people as well. So poor fluau 

 Husek' (fly whip) is now in jail for killing that witch (Devereux, 1948 f). 



Well, there is also another side to this matter of killing witches. A few braves 

 eventually died because they had killed shamans. They saw in their dreams 

 the blood of their victim ; it was someplace on their bodies. At other times 

 they thought that they had killed some animals, and saw the blood all around 

 them, or somewhere near them. This blood plays a role in their dreams because 

 they have killed someone, and eventually they go crazy from it (hahnok). Even 

 if a shaman promises to cure such an insane brave, if it is the (dead?) shaman's 

 will that he should die, he will die. 



This type of insanity resembles the madness of scalpers. (See pt. 2, 

 p. 43-75.) 20 



The role of feelings of guilt over an act of aggression in the etiology 

 of the witch-killing brave's psychosis is conclusively demonstrated by 

 the fact that such witch-killing braves are themselves often also 

 witches, who, thus, seem to punish others for the very misdeed of 

 which they themselves are guilty. 



Comment 



Tentative diagnosis. — Severe anxiety reaction caused by guilt. 



The preceding data, which are very similar to those obtained by 

 K. M. Stewart (1947 c), and by Fathauer (1954), clearly show the 

 nexus between the derangement of witch killers, of scalpers, and of 

 hunters who eat their kill. In addition, the data concerning scalpers 

 and witch killers emphasize the Mohave Indian's fear of blood, which 

 manifests itself not only in connection with actual killings and in 

 the belief that the foreign sickness is caused by the "strong blood" of 



*" Pulyl : k was alone in doubting that witch killers became insane. 



