168 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



against which the Mohave struggle all their lives and which causes 

 them, e.g., to taboo, as suggestive of incest, the oral titillation of the 

 mammae during foreplay (Devereux, 1947 a and 1950 a). 



It should be noted, however, that at least one of my own two dreams 

 which the Mohave diagnosed as hiwey lak dreams did not fit any 

 of these patterns. This suggests a tendency to diagnose as hiwey lak 

 dreams certain anxiety dreams in which the "ego is split." Thus, 

 Kohovan Kura :u, who had a "dream within a dream," was convinced 

 that this was an unlucky and probably pathogenic dream, although 

 he did not specifically mention the possibility that it may be a hiwey 

 lak dream. By contrast, a dream in which he saw the white town of 

 Parker almost deserted, was interpreted by him simply as a prophetic 

 dream, heralding the great economic depression of 1929-1934: — per- 

 haps because he knew that the white man does not destroy his house 

 when one of its inliabitants dies. 



Miscellaneous Supplementary Data 

 From Various Informants 



Predisposition. — Women who menstruate little or irregularly are especially 

 likely to develop ghost pregnancies. Apparently even irregular or scanty 

 menses, occurring naturally during puberty, or else during the menopause, are 

 sometimes considered pathological, since of the two vpomen who misdiagnosed 

 their pregnancies as hiwey lak nyevedhi :, one was still in her middle teens (Case 

 46), while the other was old enough to have reached the menopause (Case 45). 

 It should be noted that in both instances the shamans consulted were quite proud 

 of having made the correct (naturalistic) diagnosis, and of having "debunked" 

 the patient's supernaturalistic self-diagnosis (McNichols, 1944). 



Witchcraft. — Unlike the other veneral disease, hiku :pk, hiwey lak can also 

 be caused by witchcraft. It is desirable to recall in this context that another 

 type of murderous attack upon the mother by a living and real fetus can like- 

 wise be caused by witchcraft (Devereux, 1948 e). On the other hand, it should 

 also be specified that at least one reliable informant asserted that a witch cannot 

 send the ghost of a dead child back into its mother's womb and is also unable 

 to shift a real fetus from one woman's womb to that of another. Yet, even 

 this informant believed that witches can cause simple hiwey lak and, perhaps, 

 also those forms of hiwey lak nyevedhi : which do not involve a ghost pregnancy. 



Dreams. — Sometimes a dream about a (dead?) baby causes itc hira :v, a dis- 

 order seemingly related to hiwey lak. 



Symptoms. — Ahwe: tci is a sort of hard object in the vagina, which is caused 

 by dreaming of coitus with a dead husband (pt. 4, pp. 13S-141). This condition, 

 which may or may not be related to hiwey lak, is not generally known to lay- 

 men, since Pulyi :k professed to know nothing about this symptom and had 

 never even heard the term ahwe: tci. (Note that dead husband=ahive:= 

 enemy ! ) 



Diagnosis. — The initial diagnosis of hiwey lak is sometimes far from easy, so 

 that a hiwey lak patient may first be treated for another illness, which he does 

 not have (Case 44). 



Treatment. — Supposedly, usually successful. 



Treatment despite had prognosis. — In hiwey lak nyevedhi: dreams one ac- 

 tually goes to the land of the dead. This means that one part of the soul 



