124 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



people get worse before they get old. They must be (have) suma:tc itcem 

 (dreams evil). What I told you just now is a matter of geueral knowledge 

 regarding the good and the bad aspects of hikwi :r hahnok. What I explained 

 to you up to now is one kind of sickness. I am describing to you the various 

 (mental) illnesses one by one. 



Comment 



Hilyera Anyay's statement is significant chiefly because it stresses that 

 hikwi :r hahnok tends not to affect older people as severely as it affects younger 

 ones. If hikwi :r hahnok should really turn out to be a mental disorder — and 

 Hilyera Anyay listed it first among mental derangements — the specification 

 above could fit both hysteria and manic-depressive psychosis. The informant's 

 emphasis on the psychiatric aspects of the illness is interesting, in view of the 

 fact that both he and his wife (Cases 28, 29) seemed unusually pleasant, 

 neither of whom complained of overt psychiatric symptoms, though their 

 hikwi : r dreams were obviously neurotic ones. 



CASE 28 (Informant: The patient) : 



Dreamer. — Hilyera Anyay, a very old and nearly blind shaman, was most 

 cooperative, unusually intelligent, and a very clear thinker as well. The events 

 reported were stated to be recent ones, 



"I was standing by the lake (Red Lake) and in my heart I knew that these 

 hikwi :r things (snakes) were living somewhere along the bank. In my dream 

 I knew that I had to get to the other side of the lake, so I went into the water 

 and started to wade across. When I was halfway across, I suddenly felt 

 warm around the legs. I knew that this warmth was the breath of one of 

 these snakes." 



Associations. — "Now, in my old age, I feel (have sensations in) my legs and 

 have rheumatism. That is why I had this dream, which was the sign of the 

 coming of rheumatism. Hence, I got sick after having this dream. When I 

 get up and try to walk after sitting for a long while, my legs feel heavy and I 

 have such sharp pains in my knees that it sometimes causes me to fall down. In 

 my younger days I used to run races and ran long distances. Now, in my old age, 

 the thing I have to think about, and must forget, are these pains." 



Comment 



Mythical as well as real snakes are pathogenic agents. The lake in question 

 (Red Lake) is believed by some to have once been "good"; women used to go 

 there to get mud for shampooing their hair. However, a malevolent shaman, 

 Hamuly Huk'ye : ra did "something" to that lake, and now it is "bad." The 

 breath of shamans and witches, both human and supernatural, is an important 

 magical substance, used in therapy as well as in witchcraft. Heat is an im- 

 portant therapeutic agent among the Mohave. Mohave men literally sit on 

 their upturned soles (Kroeber, 1925 a; Devereux, 1948 a, 1949 b), which is 

 probably an uncomfortable position for an old man to assume. The Mohave are 

 noted for their great ability to run incredibly long distances (Kroeber, 1925 a). 



Tentative diaynosis. — Onset of rheumatism, eliciting an anxiety dream. 



Interpretation. — This dream is stated to liave heralded or caused the onset 

 of rheumatism, which put an end to the dreamer's former agility and speed. 

 The warm breath of the .snakes on the dreamer's le.u:s appears to be a denial of 

 the illness, since old people suffering from rheumatism often have poor circula- 

 tion, so that their legs feel cold rather than warm. One tentative interpretation 



