136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 176 



of course.^ Both diseases closely resemble also moua : v halmok (pt. 

 4, pp. 184r-186). 



Hivsu: Tupo:ma's statement (1933). — People who coiue into close or pro- 

 longed contact with foreigners go crazy. The stronger blood of the stranger 

 "hits" (in some unexplained way) the weaker blood of the Mohave, causing 

 him to become ill and to go crazy. Of course, a Mohave Indian's blood may 

 also affect an alien adversely.^ Formerly, there were shamans who could 

 cure this illness, because they had ahwe : suma : tc ( =f oreign dreams, i. e., 

 dreams pertaining to the treatment of the foreign sickness). Now there are 

 none. (The Mohave insisted that Hivsu: Tupo:ma himself, as well as Ahma 

 Huma : re, had the requisite powers, although both denied this not only to 

 me, but also to the Mohave themselves.) It is possible, of course, that some- 

 one may have the appropriate dreams sometime in the future, and if that 

 happens, there will again be a shaman who can cure this sickness." Some of 

 Hivsu: Tupo:ma's subsequent remarks indicated that the term "blood" — at 

 least as used in this contest — may also carry a peripheral connotation of 

 "power." Thus, once in a while he would say that the stranger's power hit 

 the blood of the Mohave, although most of the time he said that this was 

 done by the alien's blood.'" Somewhat along the same lines, Tcatc stated that 

 it was the soul of the alien that hit the soul of the Mohave. This was also the 

 opinion of Hilyera Anyay. 



Tcatc's statement {193S). — [What is the cause of insanity in general?] 

 Insanity is, in general, caused by intermarriage with different tribes. This 

 is called ahwe: (short for ahwe: hahnok). The soul (matkwisa:) and the 

 blood of aliens are stronger than ours. They hit the blood and soul of the 

 Mohave, who then contract this disease. [Which of the four souls is involved? 

 (Devereus, 1937 a)] You, who saw your sweetheart in dream, should know 

 that. It is the matkwisa: suma:tc mitcemvetc. (The soul wherewith one 

 has bad dreams.) Even if your children are not real aliens, but merely half- 

 breeds, you will see this (stronger) soul among your children. (Weeks later, 

 when summing up her remarks about mental disorders, Tcatc once more stated : ) 

 I have now finished telling you about all the crazy people I have known. Now 

 that there are all these intermarriages with different tribes and with one's 

 own relatives^ there ought to be a lot of crazy people, but, oddly enough, 

 there are not. [Why not?] There are no fullblood Mohave anymore." Maybe — 

 I am not sure of it — but it may possibly be that that is why they do not go 



*^ In the same Bcnse, any discussion of the psychodynamics of severe obsessive-compulsive 

 states Invariably contains references to the dynamics of p.iranold schizophrenia, since a 

 severe obsessive-compulsive may, If his analysis is not conducted with extreme skill, become 

 a full-blown paranoid schizophrenic. While we certainly do not suggest that ahwe : hahnok 

 and ahwe : nyevedhi : are effective and scientific nosological entitles, In the modern sense, 

 the Mohave feel that they are genuine clinical categories, and that ahwe : hahnok can 

 develop into ahwe: nyevedhi:. If one accepts this Mohave view, the constant references 

 to ahwe : nyevedhi : in discussions supposedly limited to ahwe : hahnok, and vice versa, 

 are both logical and necessary. This view is in accordance with the principle that one may 

 draw perfectly "logical" (though inherently false) conclusions from a set of coherent, 

 but false, premises. An example of this is Plato's logically airtight, but factually 

 fallacious, defense of slavery. 



** This was not mentioned by any other informant and may be a personal opinion. 



*' Compare the belief that the witch killer becomes psychotic because he sees the blood of 

 his victim in his dreams (pt. 2, pp. 45-46). 



*«The juxtaposition of tribal exogamy and incest further supports the Inference that 

 the "superpotent" alien symbolizes the sexual, "evil" paternal ogre (Devereux, 1950 a). 



*" This gross overstatement Is made by many fullblood Mohave Indians. 



