160 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



the degree of latitude permitted to ttie individual shaman in evolving his per- 

 sonal medico-etiological theories. However, from the psychoanalytic point of 

 view, the two, seemingly incompatible, theories actually say the same thing.'* 

 Indeed the menstrual blood from which babies are formed is simply equated 

 with a ghostly fetus, because many psychic and somatic effects of a pathological 

 retention of the menses and of a natural pregnancy are, according to the 

 Mohave, almost identical (Cases 45 and 46). 



(2) The narrative contains two passages which reveal a certain confusion 

 about sexual self-identiflcation. The first of these passages opens with a 

 description of ghost pregnancy and motherhood, immediately followed by the, 

 logically extraneous but psychologically relevant, remark that the singer — a 

 man — formerly had hiwey lak. The second passage states that male hiwey 

 lak patients may dream of female regalia and possessions, at which point we 

 noted that such dreams and interests are said to be highly characteristic of future 

 transvestites. What is especially relevant in this context is that male trans- 

 vestites who have "husbands" not only fake menstruation and pregnancy, but 

 even deliberately constipate themselves so as to be able to "give birth" to a fecal 

 "child" (Devereux, 1937 b). This practice may be the (implicit) link which 

 connects ghostly pregnancy (pseudocyesis) with a disease whose very name 

 (hiwey lak = anus pain) indicates that it is believed to affect primarily the 

 digestive tract. Thus, the entire concept of hiwey lak nyevedhi : appears to be 

 a culturally structured and implemented fantasy about the oral-anal origin 

 of babies, such as children evolve during the aual stage of psychosexual 

 development (Devereux, 1951 e). Indeed, both normal children and adult 

 schizophrenics sometimes fantasy that babies are conceived orally and are 

 born through the anus or navel. Mohave male transvestites actually implement 

 this fantasy, by drinking a constipating decoction and by "giving birth" to a hard 

 fecal mass, which they choose to call a "stillbirth," while in hiwey lak nyevedhi : 

 the retention of the menses and the ghost pregnancy resulting from it are said 

 to cause major gastrointestinal disturbances.^* 



Ahma Humane's first statement (1932). — The disease called hiwey lak may 

 come from dreaming about intercourse with a person of the opposite sex, or 

 about drinking stagnant water or else water found in the hills. The person one 

 dreams about is not responsible for these di-eams or for the subsequent illness. 



Symptoms: The chief symptoms of this disease are stomach troubles because 

 (sic!) hiwey lak is a venereal disease without skin eruptions. Once a person 

 has such dreams, even his favorite dishes will not seem to taste good. There will 

 also be frequent headaches, and vision will be disturbed and hazy (migraine?). 

 When the patient looks at a distant object, the thing he looks at seems deformed. 

 There is, furthermore, a general nervousness of the eyes ; one cannot look at 

 things for any length of time, because one's vision becomes hazy and flashy 

 (scintillating scotoma?). Unless a shaman is asked to cure the sick person, 

 death may be considered a certainty. 



Origin of poicer: I do not say that my power comes from Matavilye, because 

 I believe that Matavilye lived and died without telling about, or giving, the 

 power to cure this illness. In this respect, our religion differs from the religion 



'* Cf. the basic Identity of two, supposedly incompatible, etiological theories of the 

 hlkwla- Illness (pt. 4, pp. 117-128). 



'« The fact that the same Illness may be caused also by dreaming of the homestead of 

 one's youth, which was destroyed when a relative, who lived in that house, died, is psycho- 

 logically also related to this retentive process and Is a defense against the sense of psychic 

 and material loss which death, followed by the destruction of property previously avail- 

 able to the survivor, entails (Devereux, 1942 a). 



