Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 99 



Tcatc: "Maybe I should not say this, but you are very much in 

 love with her and she is not in love with you. Maybe that is why she 

 turned you down in this manner." 



G. D. : (Ilestatement of my preceding remark.) 



Tcatc: "The best thing to do is to forget about her and tliink 

 about another girl. All this makes you feel bad, and thmgs don't 

 seem right at the present time. If a Mohave feels that way, we say 

 that he has hi : wa itck. "Wlien a Mohave has that disease, his friends 

 could only advise him to forget about his girl and to think of another 

 girl. I think that this girl has been lying to you all along. The 

 best thing, therefore, is just to stop thinking about her, right now. 

 You'll only feel worse if you keep on thinking about her." 



G. D. : "I know you are right — but it is just like telling a sick man 

 to get well. It does not help." 



Tcatc : "You should put all your mind and all your heart mto the 

 work you are doing with us." 



G. D. : "I do just that when I am working with you. But what 

 am I to do when I am not working with you — in the evenings?" 



Tcatc : "Surely you have at least the courage to forget her 1" 



G. D. : "I know I am fortunate to be with friends such as you dur- 

 ing these sad weeks." 



Tcatc: (Nodding and smiling) "That is what friends are for — to 

 know each other." 



G. D. : "You are a very good and wise old woman, and I like you 

 veiy much." 



Tcatc : "I have known you for a long time, and all the time I have 

 known you, you have been very good and I like to see you happy 

 about such things. In my time I have advised many a young Mohave 

 to choose a happy marriage rather than seek to be despised for be- 

 ing in love with a worthless woman. If this girl is that way, then 

 there is nothing 3^ou can do to change her. Look at me ! I have not 

 been married once only. Wlien my husband left me for another 

 woman, I still loved him, but I could not help it. Time will heal your 

 heart too. You will be happy, and you will be my happy friend once 

 more. If you keep on feeling tliis way, you might even get sick from 

 too much work, though I hope you won't." 



The next day — probably because of Tcatc's support — I felt consid- 

 erably better about the whole matter, and teasingly told Tcatc that 

 she must be a shaman, because she had cured me of my hi :wa itck. 

 Tcatc replied, "This girl is to be pitied, rather than thought about. 

 In my own grief, I never thought afterward about such things. They 

 just happen — and that is all there is to it. It would have been useless 

 for me to feel bad about it, because I never knew anyone who died of 

 heartbreak." (Note the distinction between hi : wa itck and suicide ! ) 



