74 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



from a cord tied around his neclc. He was so poor that he sang and danced 

 at the Harvey House, in Needles, for the tourists. In 1905, having declared 

 that he had started the epidemic that was at that time killing many children, 

 he was killed by a bereaved father, who had lost a son and daughter." (Full 

 details are given in Case 103. ) 



Comment 

 Tentative diagnosis : Epilepsy. ( Less probably hystero-epilepsy. ) 

 CASE 7 (Informants: Tcatc and E. S.) : 



Isalya Uka (to curve) of the Melyikha gens, is said to have died at the age 

 of 18 "70 years ago" (1868).^' One day we were at school. The boys were 

 seated on one side of the classroom and the girls on the other side. That 

 morning the teacher asked us to sing. This boy was singing perfectly normally 

 with the other boys, when suddenly he got up and made a choked, panting 

 noise, which sounded like "ak'." We girls knew that he had fits and some of 

 us had even seen him have a seizure. So all the girls said in Mohave: "It is 

 getting him again !" Then all the girls, including myself, ran out of the room, 

 and therefore I did not see the rest of the fit. We waited outside and could 

 hear him make that noise. He was swaying and rolling around. [Here Tcatc 

 mimicks the seizure.] We did not return to school that day. No one treated 

 this boy, and eventually he died during a seizure. 



Comment 

 Tentative diagnosis: Epilepsy. 



CASE 8 (Informants: Tcatc and E. S.) : 



Kumadhi:, a girl of about 18, died long ago during one of her numerous 

 seizures. At the old Indian Agency, near the superintendent's residence, there 

 was a big hole in the ground. She must have been near that hole when she 

 had her last spell. She fell into the hole and broke her neck. 



I (Tcatc) never saw her during one of her seizures. 



Comment 



Tentative diagnosis: Epilepsy (?). 



CASE 9 (Informant: Hivsu: Tupo:ma [?]) : 



A certain man was so addicted to masturbation that he eventually developed 

 fits. During one of these fits he fell into a fire and burned himself rather 

 severely. Later on, during another attack, he fell into an irrigation ditch and 

 drowned. 



Comment 



Tentative diagnosis: Hystero-epilepsy. 



The Mohave feel that a masturbating adult is quite atypical, in that he be- 

 haves in an infantile manner (Devereux, 1950 c). 



CASE 10 (Informant: Pulyi:k): 



A girl named O : otc had seizures. She fell into the fire, and later on she 

 also fell into water and drowned. 



« A man, crippled by premature cremation, also danced at Harvey House (McNlchols, 

 1944). 



" This Is probably a gross exaggeration, since he went to school with Tcatc, who was 

 presumably not more than 75 years old in 1938. 



