172 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



I cured him in one night, so that the next day he was able to walli home. 

 (Allergy?) 



CASE 41 (Informants : Ahma Huma : re and Hama : Utce : ) : 

 I recently cured an old woman who had hiwey lak. 



CASE 42 (Informants : Ahma Huma : re and E. S.) : 



Huau Husek' (fly whip) of the Mu:th gens, 35 years old, dreamed that he 

 had intercourse with his (living) sister, Mu:th Nyemsutkha :v (= a certain 

 feather for the hair). I treated him and his dreams ceased in 4 days. 



Comment 



Tentative diagnosis. — Anxiety state caused by incestuous dreams. 



The first point to be noted is Ahma Huma :re's specification that the dreams 

 ceased in 4 days. No mention is made of a physical illness. This leads one 

 to suppose that the patient called the shaman as soon as his anxiety dreams be- 

 gan, thereby indicating that, for a man of 35, he was unusually old fashioned. 

 His conservativeness also expressed itself in the fact that he was the last Mohave 

 to kill a witch, who, after seducing Huau Husek's wife, proceeded to threaten 

 both him and his wife with witchcraft (Devereux, 1948 f, and Case 104). 



An equally important feature of this case is the fact that, in violation of the 

 Mohave custom of not meddling with the domestic affairs of others, Mu:th 

 Nyemsutkha :v went out of her way to inform her brother of his wife's infidel- 

 ities. This suggests an unusually intense and unconsciously incestuous rela- 

 tionship between brother and sister, who should not discuss sexual matters 

 with each other. This inference is, in turn, strongly supported by the fact 

 that, soon after Mu :th Nyemsutkha :v brought him this news, her brother had 

 incestuous dreams about her. It is also to be noted (Case 43) that, soon after 

 the murder of the witch, Mu :th Nyemsutkha :v herself contracted hiwey lak. 



CASE 43 (Informant : Ahma Huma : re and E. S. ) : 



Soon after her brother Huau Husek' and his wife murdered the witch Anyay 

 Ha:m (Case 104), Mu:th Nyemsutkha :v, a woman in her 30's, became hyster- 

 ical and quite ill. Although the informant himself stressed that this illness 

 began shortly after the witch's murder, he denied that there was any nexus 

 between the two events. No further details could be obtained, since the woman 

 was still too ill at that time to be interviewed. 



Comment 



It is known also from other sources that Mu :th Nyemsutkha :v was indirectly 

 responsible for the miirder of the witch and for the imprisonment of her 

 brother who killed him, since she took it upon herself to tell her brother that 

 his wife had an affair with the witch. It is also known that, soon after she 

 made this disclosure, Hnau Husek' had incestuous dreams about her. This 

 frightened him sufiiciently to induce him to consult a shaman, who diagnosed 

 his case as hiwey lak (Case 42). It is, therefore, probable that Mu:th Nyem- 

 sutkha :v, too, had an incestuous fixation on her brother and that her illness 

 represented partly a guilt reaction to the tragedy caused by her talebearing and 

 partly an identification with her brother's hiwey lak illness. 



