152 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



(Kroeber, 1948) is the way in which venereal disease (i.e., chiefly 

 hiku : pk) was to be transmitted in times to come. Alima Kiima : re, 

 on the other hand, seemed to view hiwey lak as a broadly sexual rather 

 than as a specifically venereal disease, and therefore spontaneously 

 referred to the connection between hiwey lak and obstetrics, which 

 was his second specialty (Devereux, 1948 e) and which appears to be 

 also the second cultural context or matrix of the hiwey lak group of 

 diseases. 



(2) Ohstetrlcs. — Ahma Humarre fully agreed with the definition 

 of hiwey lak as a sexual disease but, due to his subjectively deter- 

 mined interest in obstetrics," emphasized chiefly its connection 

 with this latter specialty. In fact, just as Harav PIe:ya. who also 

 treated hiku : pk, stressed the connection between the power to cure 

 hiwey lak and the power to cure hiku : pk, Ahma Huma : re asserted 

 that shamans who treated hiwey lak specialized in obstetrics also, even 

 though, at that time, he appears to have been the only Mohave shaman 

 who had this dual competence. This fact illustrates the great flexi- 

 bility of even major Mohave systems of belief. It should be stressed, 

 however, that in postulating a necessary nexus between the two 

 specialties, Alima Huma : re did not introduce any radically new point 

 of view into Mohave medical theory, since the connection between 

 hiwey lak — one of whose symptoms may be ghost pregnancy (i.e., 

 pseudocyesis) — and obstetrical difficulties is, in a way, "natural," so 

 that both logically (culturally) and subjectively (psychologically) 

 Ahma Huma :re was on solid ground. 



(3) Psychosomatics. — During the 1938 field trip devoted to the 

 study of Mohave psychiatric theories, Ahma Huma :re was once more 

 asked to discuss hiwey lak, but this time with special reference to 

 ghost pregnancy (pseudocyesis), viewed as a psychosomatic con- 

 dition. While discussing this hiwey lak symptom in this particular 

 context, Alima Huma : re spontaneously provided data which led to 

 additional questions concerning the purely psychiatric aspects of 

 this group of ailments. 



(4) Psychiatry. — ^Wliile discussing hiwey lak from the psycho- 

 somatic and psychiatric point of view, 6 years after discussing this 

 illness as a sex-linked disease, Ahma Huma : re demonstrated that he 

 had been aware all along of the psychiatric aspects of that disease and 

 had simply failed to elaborate this aspect of the problem at a time 

 when ho was expected to discuss its sex-linked (venereal) aspects. 

 It should be stressed that, though very cooperative, Ahma Huma :re 

 was by no means suggestible. It is quite certain that in discussing 



^A8 stated elsewhere (Devereux, 1948 e) Ahma Humarre obtained obstetrical powers 

 In dream, shortly after his wife and unborn child died. 



