80 BUREAU OF AIVIERICAN ETHNOLOGY I Bull. 175 



Diego. (This may be a misstatement, Cf. Devereux, 1948 f.) Nyortc Huliual 

 is related to M. L.'s wife. This M. L. is the one who was present at Apen 

 Ismalyk's lunacy hearing (Case 4), She is also related to Uta : c, whose 

 wife died insane (Case 38). Uta : c's father was her mother's brother, and 

 his mother was her father's sister, two men having married each other's sister. 

 Nyortc Huhual had been married to many men, all of whom died shortly after 

 marrying her. In addition, she is said to have had affairs with the witch 

 Kwathany Hi : wa, with Itha : v Kamuhan (alias Porkupork; cf. Devereux, 

 19.50 a), and with a number of other people. I first knew her when she was 12 

 years old. At that time she lived near M. S.'s dwelling, at a place called Ah'a 

 kapitan (Captain's cottonwood). She is like other men and women who have the 

 ya tcahaetk illness : She is a good housewife and is good to everyone, but is 

 known to copulate for the asking. Recently (1938), while going home from a 

 party, she was waylaid by two allegedly drunken men, who liuUed a sack over 

 her head and robbed her. One of them even raped her.^" (Cf. Case 128.) 



"Although no one really knows who these men were, rumor has it that the one 

 who raped her was one of her own nephews." At this point, someone present 

 exclaimed in the typically Mohave bantering manner : "Lucky girl— at her age !" 

 Tcatc replied quite seriously : "If she had not been copulating so much all her 

 life, she would have died (of this rape?) long ago" (Devereux, 1939 a). 



At this point I reminded Tcatc that, according to Hivsu : Tupo : ma and 

 others, this selfsame alleged rapist is said to have cohabited also with his own 

 sister, Mah (Devereux, 1939 a). Tcatc replied that she, too, had heard of that 

 incident. Then the interpreter E. S. said : "This N. family are devils — and 

 close relatives of mine, as well as of Hama : Utce: (Testicles charcoal)." 

 Tcatc then closed the discussion with the remark : "They act just like white 

 people do" (i. e., in an objectionable manner) ."^ 



Comment 

 Tentative diagnosis: Nymphomania. 



CASE 16 (Informants: Tcatc and E. S.) : 



Hwet Isa: lye (Red hand),^^ of the Nyoltc gens, died around 1900 at the age 

 of 60 or 65. He was married quite a number of times. Although he was a good 

 man, who provided well for all of his successive wives, none of them lived with 

 hira for long. They just went away and left him, because he wanted to copulate 

 all the time. Eventually he died from hiku : pk (venereal disease). That is all 

 I know of him. I did not see him often. 



Comment 



Tentative diagnosis: Compulsive promiscuousness and sexual hyperactivity. 

 Venereal disease. 



This case closely resembles the following one. In both instances the man is 

 said to have been a good provider, but sexually so demanding that every one of 

 his wives deserted him. The assertion, also made in other contexts (Devereux, 

 1950 a), that wives may desert sexually hyperactive husbands is somewhat 



""• This Is the only Mohave robbory and not partly traditional rape known to me (Devereux, 

 1939 a). 



""For a discussion of this family, cf. part 5, papes 245-247. 



•* The Mohave stated that, for some unknown reason, the word "red" is in the Yuma, 

 and not in the Mohave, language. In Mohave "red" is called "ahwat." 



