112 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



(Q) I also dream of ordinary snakes. I dreamed that I was walking some- 

 where and saw some snakes on the road, or on the path. [Very long pause.] I 

 did not get ill after dreaming of real snakes, or of the hikwi: r snake (i. e., she 

 does not feel she has the hikwi : r illness) , 



I had a miscarriage last June — I don't know why. I never before had a 

 miscarriage. I was working at that time in Needles, cooking for a bunch of 

 cowboys. (Q) I never had venereal diseases and had never been ill in my life, 

 except the time I lost my hand. I had gone horseback riding just before I had 

 my miscarriage (huk'auvak). It was the first time I ever rode horseback in all 

 my life.** I liked it, though the next day I was rather stiff. [I thought that 

 Mohave women do not ride horses.] They used to ride in the past, though they 

 don't nowadays. I went riding because I wanted to try it. I wore a pair of 

 pants belonging to my husband. He too came riding with me. (Q) I don't 

 know whether I would rather be a man or a woman. 



Shortly afterwards I had a miscarriage and felt very ill. I was living on 

 the Arizona side of the Colorado River, just opposite Needles, and I must have 

 been ill for about two weeks when I began to get worse and started to have 

 headaches. One day, when some Mohave, who came from some place, were 

 passing by my camp, I asked them to take me to Needles, to see the doctor. The 

 next day my brother P. went to town, to see the doctor about me, and asked 

 him whether he could do anything for me. The Parker Reservation social 

 worker — a Plains Indian girl who is married to a white man — happened to be 

 in Needles at that time, and when she saw my brother at the doctor's office, she 

 asked him what was the matter. When my brother told her that I was ill, the 

 social worker had a talk with the doctor, and then drove to my camp and asked 

 me to come to the Parker Indian Agency Hospital with her. When I agreed, 

 the social worker put me in her car and drove me straight to the reservation 

 hospital at Parker. The hospital doctor then told me that I had had a mis- 

 carriage. 



(Q) Yes, I was quite upset while I was at the hospital. (Q) They treated 

 me with pills. (Q) The pills did not make me sleepy. The first day in the 

 hospital I did not feel very ill. However, the next morning I got up and went 

 to the bathroom, and when I came out again I guess I must have fainted. The 

 nurse gave me some kind of medicine to smell, and that brought me around. 

 Then they put me in a private room. I do not recall very much about the rest 

 of my stay at the hospital. I was asleep most of the time. I had no pains, and 

 nothing was worrying me, but my head kept on bothering me all the time. [Did 

 you have headaches, or were you drowsy?] I had headaches, I think. (Q) I 

 did not cry or shout. I was in the hospital for about a month. That was in the 

 month of June of this year. 



(Q) I had had fainting spells also in the past. I used to have them in school, 

 all the time. (Q) The first time I fainted was after I had been in school, at 

 Phoenix, for about two years. I must have been about 17 or 18 years old at 

 that time. (Q) I don't think it had anything to do with my menses. (Q) I 

 can't say that anything worried me, so as to make me faint. It just happened 

 for no reason that I know of. (Q) I never had laughing or crying fits. (Q) No 

 Mohave shaman ever doctored me, that I know of. I never was ill enough for 

 that. (Q) They may have doctored me when I was a very small child. If they 

 did, I do not remember anything about it. (Q) I don't know what the Mohave 

 name of my ailment is. (Q) I do not think that any of the Mohave diseases 



•* This coincidence suggests an anconsdons wish to abort. 



