Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 137 



crazy from the effects of all these foreign contacts. The "delinquent" boy 

 Nepe : he (Case 76) is an example of this. 



Ahma Huma: re's statement (1938). — A person who gets the ahwe:hahnok 

 disease is suma : tc itcem (has evil dreams). A long time ago the original food 

 of the Indians sometimes caused them to become ill. Le: va (Case 35) had this 

 illness. It is called itcuma : tc.'° They (sometimes?) dreamed that they were 

 eating too much of some of this aboriginal food. But now that we have these 

 foreign foods, they see in their dreams some other person — not a Mohave — who is 

 preparing this food (for them) and dream that they eat too much of some of this 

 food. When they have such dreams, they have no appetite. They vomit quite a 

 bit and sometimes also have fever. The halfbreeds whom they marry may also 

 cause them to have this sickness. The Mohave are said to have a weaker blood 

 and weaker souls than other races. They may also dream of cohabiting with 

 members of other tribes, or even with whites, and this causes them to contract 

 the ahwe : hahnok disease. Ahwe : means the same thing as ahwe : hahnok. 



[What is the apen hahnok disease?] There was a person who ate apen 

 (beaver) . The beaver is not what we would call the original food of the Mohave. 

 Yet, even in the olden days, when people were hungry and meat was scarce, some 

 people killed beavers and ate them. Some of them got sick from doing that. 

 I do not know what dreams such people had. People who had this sickness 

 suffered from a swelling of the body. I do not know in what way they would 

 be crazy, but they did say that such people became crazy. By the way, whites 

 are called apen kutctha :ny, which means beaver eater. Sometimes we also call 

 the whites simply apen. It means beaver. [Is the term hi -.ko still used to refer 

 to whites?] No. Nowadays we refer to them mostly by the term "American." 



miyera Amjai/s statement (1938). — [What do you know about the ahwe: 

 nyevedhi: ailment?] Ahwe: hahnotc (another form of the word hahnok) is 

 a sickness that is contracted by coming In contact with other tribes and with 

 persons of mixed blood. A Mohave is weaker in soul and blood than are other 

 races. This sickness is accompanied by bad dreams. As time goes by, and the 

 patient continues to have these bad dreams, he seems to be afraid of everyone 

 and runs away. [Was this the trouble with Uta : c's father-in-law?] Yes. 

 Such a person runs away from people not just once, but many times, because 

 he is scared of people. Then people run after him and bring him back. Some- 

 times, in wintertime, when such a person runs away at night he may freeze to 

 death." At other times he falls into the river or into a lake and drowns. 

 [Was this what happened to Tcavakong?] Yes.** [You explained all this 

 very clearly. Thank you for helping me get this straight. A few of my other 

 informants got me somewhat confused about this disease.] Even after a person 

 reaches this stage of the disease, he will be all right again if his bad dreams 

 cease. I am trying to tell you that when people suffer from this sickness they 

 either get worse, or else they get well. Now ask me some more questions, so 

 that I can explain everything to you just right. [Thank you. What sort of 

 dreams do such people have?] Let me give you some examples: Should a 

 Mohave marry a member of another tribe, he may see in his dreams the body 

 of his spouse, or see humthi:ly (the discharge of the nose) on his own 



'o According to Pulyl : k the complete term Is Itcema : v hahnok, and is either actually 

 the same as ahwe : hahnok, or very much like It. 



1 This may also happen to gullt-rldden Intoxicated persons. Not long after Hlvsu : 

 T»ipo :ma confessed to me that he had practiced witchcraft, he got drunk, fell asleep 

 outdoors In wintertime, contracted pneumonia and died (Devereux, 1948 1 ; and Case 139). 



'^ For a different diagnosis of Tcavakong, see Case 6 and Case 103. 



