88 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



by a shaman's attempt to attract the love of a woman by magical 

 means; the former is the result of a seemingly wanton magical ag- 

 gression. Love magic seeks to divert a woman's love from her cur- 

 rent sweetheart or husband to her shamanistic suitor, without caus- 

 ing her to misbehave sexually, except for a routine changing of her 

 bed partner — a trifling matter in Mohave society. By contrast, a 

 certain type of witchcraft can induce completely chaotic sexual mis- 

 behavior, which may even include sexual acts with animals (Devereux, 

 1948 g), but does not seem to produce any sexual advantage for the 

 witch himself. One is reminded here of a similar act of wanton mis- 

 chief, mentioned in Graeco-Koman myths. Hippolytus, the bastard 

 son of Theseus and Antiope, was indifferent to love and exclusively 

 devoted to the cult of chaste Artemis. This so offended Aphrodite 

 that she caused Theseus' wife — the previously virtuous Phaedra — ^to 

 fall incestuously in love with her stepson Hippolytus. Wlien the 

 horrified youth rejected her advances, she tore her clothes, screamed 

 that she was being raped, and hanged herself. Misled by Phaedra's 

 calumnies, Theseus then cursed his innocent son, which caused Hip- 

 polytus to die in a horrible, and supematurally caused, accident.'^^ 



Tcat&s statement: There is something else that shamans will do. People 

 sometimes see in their dreams a shaman who is bewitching (matadha : uk) them. 

 You know, the way you see your sweetheart in your dreams. Sometimes they 

 even bring some kind of animal into the woman's dreams. They also make the 

 dreamer lie (though not necessarily cohabit) with a woman in his dream, or 

 else they make him dream of using a dog or some other animal sexually.'* Then 

 they wake up. Ever after the dreamer always talks and thinks about that. 

 In the end people who have such dreams are so much affected by them that they 

 want to copulate with anyone — even with animals. [I heard from a Yuma woman, 

 that a Yuma girl cohabited with a jackass. Is the condition you just described 

 identical with the bestiality of young shamans who cohabit with donkeys and 

 even with hens?] No. The zoophilia of shamans is not a form of insanity. 

 They do .such things simply because they are shamans (kwathidhe:) or braves 

 (kwanami: hye). The man who was here a moment ago and brought us some 

 ice — Madhi : ly of the Mah gens '" — is a shaman. I was wondering whether, if 

 he heard me talk about shamans, he would "land on my bottom" (i. e., hit me). 

 He is also a brave. Should an epidemic come on the tribe, and should he find 

 out who had caused it, he would just go and kill the witch. 



No actual case history was known to this informant, and a subse- 

 quent informant, Pulyi : k, even said that he knew nothing of insanity 

 caused by witchcraft. 



There is also no information on whether female shamans, too, 

 practice this type of witchcraft. 



■^ Apollodorus : Epitome; Diodorus Sicnliis ; Hyglnus : Fahulae; Ovid: Heroidea; Pau- 

 sanlas ; Seneca: Hippolytiifi; etc. 



'* There are occasional Instances of zoophilia (Devereux, 1948 g). 



'"This man belonged to a probably psychopathic family (pt. 5, pp. 245—247). 



