Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 109 



had heart trouble aud high blood pressure aud had to stay at the hospital for 

 quite a while. When he came out of the hospital he went to work. He had 

 a job up at the A.^ency school and we never had to live off our relatives. I lived 

 with him for about 8'^ years, aud never left him during all that time. 



I have three children by my first husband, a boy Mori, who is nine years old, 

 a boy Mort. who is six, and a daughter J. who is four. My first child was born 

 a year after we were married. I was glad when he was born, aud took good 

 care of him. I like girls better though — they are more obedient. (On the whole, 

 the Mohave say that girls are more trouble than boys.) (Q) I nursed my 

 children for one year only. (Q) I nurse them until they start eating. Then 

 I stop. [That is not the old Mohave way. Don't you like to nurse them?] 

 I don't really care one way or the other. [At this point her little daughter J., 

 who had listened to our conversation, said, "I am going to play cowboy with 

 Mori." J. also used the word "killing," but I was unable to make her tell me 

 whom she wanted to kill. She had been carrying her toy revolver all day long, 

 playing at being a cowboy. Then she told me that she was going to "stick me 

 up." I inmiediately raised my hands to the ceiling, whereupon she hid behind 

 her mother's skirt and grinned at me. Previously she had been playing alone, 

 listening to us and talking to herself. She sounded as though she were talking 

 to someone, and kept on calling out the names of little boys and girls. Her 

 mother explained to mo that her daughter saw the boys play cowboy with their 

 toy guns aud had also seen Westerns in the Parker cinema.] 



(Q) I spank my children quite often, though, except at school, they did not 

 spank me when I was small. (Q) They did spank me that time, at the circus. 

 [Hivsu: Tupo: ma once said that the older Mohave think that only crazy people 

 spank their children. He said that the old people are angry when they see 

 the younger people spank their children. I think the old Mohave are right 

 about that.] I know the old people don't like it. It makes them angry. [Kam- 

 toska Huanyeily remarked that he agreed with the old Mohave on this point, 

 and .shared my opinion about the iniquity of child beating.] [I saw Hitcu : y 

 Kutask( w)elva strike his stepfather when he was about 8 years old.] My 

 children never strike back at me. (Q) I ask them to do something and if they 

 don't do it, I spank them. 



My oldest boy is not very good at school. My second son is already doing 

 pretty well at school, although it is only his first year there. My little daughter 

 is still too young to go to school.™ 



(Q) I speak both English and Mohave with my children. (Q) I do not teach 

 them Mohave customs and tell them no Coyote (hukthar) stories, (Q) be- 

 cause I have only heard them vaguely myself, and do not remember them well 

 enough to tell them to my children. (Kroeber, 1948; Devereux, 1948 h). 



(Q) I like all my children equally well. There is no difference in my love for 

 them. All of my children are alive. (This may be false. See below.) (Q) 

 I have no children by my second husband. I did get pregnant by hijn, but 

 had a miscarriage. 



I left my first husband because he was drinking too much. ( Hama : Utce : con- 

 firmed that the husband was kindly, but drank too much.) Whenever he got 

 drunk he was mean to me and hit me, and was also mean to our oldest boy 

 and hit him too. I could not stand it. One day my husband was drinking 

 again. I had gone to an old woman's funeral and, by the time I came home, 

 he had gone out to drink some more. When he finally came home, he talked 



*" The direct transition from spanking to Bchoollng is significant. 



