Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 185 



Hama: Utce:'s statement (1958). — "Some people dream of the dead. R. H.'s 

 mother, an old lady, even now mentions that she dreams of the dead, who put out 

 their hands, seeking to shake hands with her." * 



Conwient 



Moua:v hahnok is apparently a mourning reaction, since such de- 

 pressions are often characterized by a lack of appetite (pt. 4, 

 passim). It is probably significant that the witch Any ay Ha:m spe- 

 cialized in the cure of this ailment, since he openly confessed that he 

 had bewitched his own son, R. E. L., as well as the 48-year-old Arapa :k 

 Thume: (a kind of feathers for the hair), of the Mu:th gens, and 

 Arapa :k Thume's 30-year-old wife Kat, of the Kat gens, who were the 

 parents of his son's uncle-in-law Huau Husek' (Cases 42, 43 and 104). 



It must be presumed that Anyay Ha :m specialized in the cure of ex- 

 cessive mourning reactions chiefly because — being a witch — he, him- 

 self, developed an abnormally intense longing for his victims, dream- 

 ing of them, boasting of his evil deeds, threatening Huau Husek' and 

 his wife O :otc by telling them that he would bewitch them as he had 

 bewitched Huau Husek's parents and, adding insult to injury, by 

 having an affair with O :otc. In other words, this man cured an ill- 

 ness whose chief symptom — longing for a dead relative — was exactly 

 the same as the principal symptom of the suicidal depression of 

 witches: dreams about one's relatives whom one bewitched, eliciting 

 longing and depression. 



Since many tribes, in various culture areas, believe that in order to 

 be able to cure certain illnesses the shaman himself must have had 

 that illness, the similarity between Anyay Ha :m's suicidal depression 

 and the moua:v hahnok illness which he was qualified to cure is, 

 both anthropologically and psychoanalytically, quite understandable 

 and therefore requires no further comment.^ At any rate Anyay 

 Ha :m's provocative behavior, which included confessions, threats, and 

 adultery, so exasperated Huau Husek' that, assisted by his wife O :otc, 

 he eventually killed Anyay Ha :m (Devereux, 1948 f and Case 104). 



The moua :v hahnok disease appears to differ from the ahwe ; and 

 the hiwey lak groups of disorders, chiefly in that the deceased relative 

 who appears in dream does not make a specific effort to lure the sur- 

 vivor to the land of the dead, either by cohabiting with him, or by feed- 

 ing him, or by urging him to leave the earth and go to the land of the 

 dead. He simply appears in dream and behaves exactly as he did 



' Hama : Utce : did not Imply that this old woman had moua :v hahnotlc. She simply cited 

 this case as an example of contact with the dead, which frightens the living. (Cf. also 

 "John Smith's" dream of D. S. (Case 64).) 



• Compare the fact that Ahma Huma :re acquired the power to treat obstetrical complica- 

 tions after he lost his wife and unborn child, due to some obstetrical complication 

 (Devereux, 1948 e). 



