178 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



victims are not, as yet, true ghosts, they enjoy these contacts so much 

 that they begin to long for the constant company of theii- ghostly 

 captives and therefore induce others to kill them (Devereux, 1037 c 

 and pt. 7, pp. 387-426). A further reason why the witch eventually 

 seeks to be killed, is that another witch may kidnap his ghostly re- 

 tainers and permanently deprive him of their company (Devereux, 

 1937 c). 



(5) Ghost doctors may go to the land of the dead and bring back 

 the soul of a patient who strayed there, without contracting the ghost 

 disease, although they do run the risk of being kept there by their dead 

 relatives, which may be another way of contracting ghost disease. 



All other contacts with ghosts are believed to expose the living to 

 the dread ghost illness. 



Before describing this illness, it is important to discuss why it is 

 called "nyevedhi: taharna" (ghost real), rather than simply, e.g., 

 "nyevedlii: hahnok" (ghost contamination). 



As already mentioned, a patient's illness may either be "straight" 

 or "not straight.'' In the former case the patient has one disease only. 

 In the latter case there is added to his basic illness a second patho- 

 logical condition, which, in most cases, is related either to witchcraft or 

 to ghosts. Thus, ahwe: hahnok (foreign contamination) (pt. 4, pp. 

 128-150) and hiweylak (anus pain) (pt. 4, pp. 150-175) are "straight" 

 diseases, while ahwe : nyevedhi : and hiwey lak nyevedhi : are "diseases 

 that are not straight" because ghosts play a major role in their etiology 

 and symptomatology. In fact, the ghost disease appears to occur 

 mostly in conjunction with other illnesses, so that, when it occurs by 

 itself, it seems necessary to stress that the disease is the genuine 

 (unadulterated) ghost disease, nyevedhi : taha ma. 



This supposition is so important for an understanding of the rela- 

 tionship between the ghost illness and certain other disorders, that it 

 must be examined in some detail. 



Wlien asked to describe the nyevedhi : taha :na illness, Ahma 

 Huma :re declared that he had alread}' done so when he described the 

 hiwey lak nyevedhi : illness, i.e., that form of liiAvey lak in which the 

 patient dreams of intimate contact with ghosts, and especially of 

 eating food prepared by ghosts or of committing incest with ghosts. 

 Fathaucr (1951), in turn, stresses that "the 'enemy dreamer' cured 

 people who became insane as a result of dreaming of their dead 

 relatives," i.e., he treated patients who had not only the "straight" 

 ahwe : hahnok disease, but also the "not straight" ahwe : nyevedhi : 

 illness. 



Since one and the same person usually had the power to function as 

 a scalper, as a healer of the foreign disease, as a funeral orator, as a 

 healer of the illness (insanity) of those who violated funeral taboos. 



