Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 85 



On the whole, the fascination resulting from such witchcraft is ap- 

 parently halfway between the transitory fascination exerted, by young 

 shamans who wish to show oif their newly acquired powers (Devereux, 

 1937 c), and the form of witchcraft that leads to neurotic sexual ex- 

 cesses. (Seept. 2, pp. 87-89.) 



At the same time, this condition also appears to be related to court- 

 ship through an intermediary. According to information obtained by 

 Hama : Utce : from Pulyi : k, and communicated to me in a recent 

 letter (June 27, 1957) — 



The word you ask about has two meanings : 



1. Where one of two pals or chums will see someone he thinks would 

 be a good mate for the other and will talk for that someone and do 

 everything in his power to get the two together, this is called hel- 

 tcathom, meaning: Trying to bring the two together. 



2. Hi : wa heltcathom : Where a medicine man uses his power to turn 

 one's heart to him and makes him or her fall in love with him. It 

 really isn't love, but they are in their [sic!] power and are crazy 

 enough about them to do anything from (sic!) them, even to dying 

 for them. (Cf. pt. 7, pp. 383-386.) 



In the first instance, two are brought together by an intermedi- 

 ary. In the second case the heart (hi:wa) is apparently the inter- 

 mediary, i, e., the shaman's power, as it impinges upon the woman's 

 heart. The person under the shaman's love spell is, literally, in the 

 state known as "sexual thralldom," and the witchcraft element is em- 

 phasized by the thrall's willingness to die — presumably by witch- 

 craft — so as to belong forever to the witch.'^° 



CASE 18 (Informant Hama: Utce:) : 



My cousin married a man who was, at that time, officially a Christian. This 

 man was generally believed to be a shaman, though he himself never admitted it. 

 Eventually my cousin became ill and was brought to the reservation hospital. 

 However, the doctor was unable to cure her. She was just plain goofy. Maybe 

 she had reached menopause.^ Then we took her to a shaman, who managed 

 to help her. My cousin had such a temper, that her husband often remarked 

 that he would never again marry a member of the Kunyiiith gens, which has 

 the reputation of being very quick tempered. When I heard him talk that way, 

 I said, "I, for one, will never marry you," '^ but people who heard me, promptly 



"'* It may be significant that Hama : Utce :, whose English is excellent, and who usually 

 distinguishes carefully between singular and plural, began item 2, above, by speaking of a 

 medicine man and then consistently used the third person plural pronoun (they, them) 

 when referring to the medicine man (singular). This may conceivably indicate that she 

 views the shaman's person and the shaman's power as plural, especially in a context 

 where this power is a courtship intermediary. This suggestion is, of course, definitely 

 speculative. 



'"■ Most old-fashioned Mohave deny the occurrence of menopausal emotional disturbances 

 (Devereux, 1950 g). This informant was, however, quite acculturated. 



■^2 Interpreter made this remark because the Mohave believe that divorced and widowed 

 persons tend to marry repeatedly into the same family or gens. At the same time her 

 remark also voiced her claim to membership In the Kunyii : th gens, which is not a valid 

 one, since, on her father's side, she is (partly ?) of white ancestry. 



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