Devereux] AIOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 155 



certain serious illnesses (pt. 2, pp. 43-46). We may therefore suppose that the 

 mythical explanation of the transmission of venereal diseases by means of 

 saliva — rather than by means of other secretions — simply combined into a uni- 

 fied scheme the Mohave's ancient dread of secretions and their explicit 

 (Devereux, 1950 a) anti-acculturational (Devereux and Loeb, 1943 a) rejection 

 of occidental patterns of lovemakiug. An additional reason why precisely 

 saliva was chosen as the chief vehicle of sexual contamination may be the 

 fact that the supposedly "venereal" hiwey lak disease group is, at least in 

 theory, a gastrointestinal ailment that is caused, in part, by eating the food 

 of ghosts, is chai'acterized by anorexia, diarrhea, and the like, and is specifically 

 called "anus pain." In fact, it is almost necessary that the Mastamho myth 

 should mention saliva as the principal means whereby sexual diseases are 

 transmitted, if not only hiku : pk, but also hiwey lak, were to be defined as pre- 

 dominantly sexual ailments. 



Harav He.-ya's statement {1933). — Harav He:ya of Needles, a nearly blind 

 old specialist in the treatment of hiwey lak and hiku:pk (venereal diseases), 

 was an exceptionally willing informant, who gave a detailed account of hiwey 

 lak and sincerely tried to help me record his curing songs. Unfortunately, 

 despite the admonitions of his wife and nephew, he was at first altogether 

 unable to sing slowly and clearly enough to enable me to record his songs 

 accurately. In fact, most of the time he mumbled so badly that even my two 

 expert assistants, Hivsu : Tupo :ma and Hama : Utce :, could not understand all 

 the words of his songs well enough to repeat them for me in their entirety. 

 Furthermore, when they asked him to repeat a word, Harav He :ya simply be- 

 gan to sing the song once more from the start.** By contrast, his meticulous 

 prose account of hiwey lak could be recorded in its entirety. 



In the following account the noncapitalized pronouns "he" and "they" refer 

 to shamans or to the laity, as the case may be, while the capitalized pronouns 

 "He" and "They" refer to the "Ancient Ones," from whom Harav He :ya de- 

 rived his shamanistic powers. Unfortunately, the exact identity of these 

 "Ancient Ones" is one of the unsolved problems of Mohave ethnology. All we 

 know is that shamans whose power comes from the "Ancient Ones" are said 

 to be more powerful than those whose power comes from the gods and that 

 they use the right, rather than the left, hand in treating their patients. The 

 most likely hypothesis concerning the identity of these "Ancient Ones" is that 

 they are the culture hero Mastamho (cf. Ahma Huma : re's account) and his 

 contemporaries. 



In ancient times They divided the crowd and Them. Some were to the 

 right and some to the left. The shamans on the left were given the power to 

 cure hiwey lak, and They were telling them what will cause them (the people) 

 to be sick. In this house (Matavilye's?), They are telling them how they 

 are going to become sick and then taught them the method by which this illness 

 may be cured. They also described the symptoms of this illness. Even in 

 their own homes (i.e., even where they are not exposed to contamination by 

 aliens(?)) their dreams may be such that they will get sick. In everyday 

 life, wherever they go, they will perhaps become ill ; and, when they are ailing, 

 they will think of the shaman to whom the power is given to cure. Then, 

 while they were still gathered together, the power to cure was distributed. 

 There was to be sickness also in the coming generations. The boy is like 



«"This indicates that a Mohave song forms a Gestalt exactly as an occidental melody 

 does and can therefore only be remembered as a Gestalt. 



492655^61 11 



