Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 69 



but it does not make me short of breath. It stops at my heart and then it goes 

 cold again (cf. pt 1, pp. 9-17). The first time it liappened, it was like the bite 

 of an ant. That was in 1934. When it started hurting I plunged into the river, 

 because I did not know what else to do. It hurt for a whole week. Now I tend 

 my cattle even when it hurts. This first attack came in June 1934. I do not 

 know how it happened to come. 



[What do shamans think about this?] They do not know. [Have you ever 

 been treated for it by a shaman?] Yes, by (Hispan Himith) Tcilyetcilye. [What 

 did he call it?] I do not know. He did not tell me. But the pain stopped after 2 

 days of doctoring. [Didn't they tell you that you too should be a shaman?] 

 Yes. They were bound to think of that. [What can you cure?] [No reply.] 



[Do you have any siblings?] Madhily Nyunye : (bread road) a younger 

 uterine brother (actually his first cousin), and Ayulk Itcerk (= leather feces) 

 (actually a half-brother). [Which one is the older one?] I do not know. 

 They were born at Fort Mohave, and I am not certain of their relative ages. 

 [Were you well treated as a child?] Yes. [What is your first memory?] 

 They used to have shinney-games on the levee — the river, at that time, was 

 further away. [What is your second memory?] The time when the Indians 

 used to go in flocks to select land for allotment ( 1910) . 



[At what age did you have your first sex-experience?] I forget. I only re- 

 call going to school. [Do you still "chase around?"] No. 



[Would you talk to one of my psychiatrist friends, who is going to visit 

 Parker and Needles?] Yes. [How can I write to you, to let you know when 

 he is coming?] There is no way to write to me, but I am always here, or else 

 at the house of the neighbors. 



[Do you get a pension?] No. [How do you earn a living?] I don't. I live 

 off my relatives, but as soon as I get some payment from the cattle, I will live 

 off that — as I do sometimes. I have about 600 head of cattle at Fort Mohave, 

 but people steal them. [Interpreter remarked in whispers that Apen Ismalyk 

 could not possibly own 600 head of cattle. "He must think that other people's 

 cattle also belong to him."] 



Information from Ahma Huma: re (Data g) : 



Apen Ismalyk is my own nephew. He is a very well-built man, who used 

 to work at Needles, Calif., in the Santa Fe Railroad roundhouse. I visit him 

 whenever he is (I am?) in Needles. Even before he became insane (yamomk) I 

 noticed that he was not feeling well. Then I heard that he was yamomk. 

 When he talks, he seems to know almost everything. I think it is due to the 

 fact that he has knowledge of more things than he speaks about, but people say 

 that he is yamomk. 



[Half the time I could not understand Apen Ismalyk, even when he 

 started pouring out a stream of words in English.] I know just what you 

 mean ! I heard Apen Ismalyk sing all the songs that were formerly sung 

 and are still being sung by the Indians, and even heard him sing white 

 people's songs. 



People think that his insanity has two causes : 



{a) He has dream power, but never used it ; he is, therefore, so full of It 

 that his mind is not open to other things. It seems to make him for- 

 get other things and causes him to speak only his mind, which is full 

 of these unused powers. (Autism.) 

 (&) Some people also think that someone may have done something 

 with him, by means of witchcraft. 



