Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 193 



asleep, but when the oratoi* sings about Pahotcatc she wakes up with a jerk, in 

 a real terror. Then she has a fit and malces various noises, which awaken other 

 people who may also be napping. I (Hivsu: Tupo:ma), who sing of Pahotcatc, 

 will immediately cure her, by talking (ritually) to her. During such a ritual 

 certain other persons, who also happen to be unwell, will likewise be awakened 

 and become noisy. 



It is obvious that the preceding statement does not imply that the 

 orator punishes such dissolute girls by supernatural means. It does, 

 however, suggest that young Mohave women are prone to become 

 emotionally disturbed in public, and especially during public ritual 

 activities. This is also suggested by the fact that young shamans 

 first display their powers by mildly bewitching a girl at a gathering. 

 The tendency to have a fit in public is clearly a hysterical trait and 

 causes one to question the validity of the traditional supposition that 

 the Roman morbus comitialis (illness occurring at a gathering) was 

 always true epilepsy and not hystero-epilepsy.^- 



HIYAM AHWAT 



Informants: Tcatc and E. S.: 



Only those who have obtained the appropriate powers in dreams may use and 

 handle the funeral feathered staves, and take care of them. If anyone else 

 picks up these feathers, it is a usurpation of shamanistic-oratorical powers. 

 Hence, the contact with these feathers will drive the usurper insane. He will 

 hemorrhage from the mouth and will have bad dreams. Also, when he uses 

 these feathers, or feathered staves, he has severe headaches. In his dream he 

 sees this hemorrhage and then he goes crazy .^' He may even go down on his 

 knees and plow the ground with his head. It is very much like having a spell 

 (convulsive seizure). They just go insane. 



Comment 



It is tentatively suggested that we may be dealing here with 

 tuberculosis complicated by a reactive neurosis. 



From the cultural point of view, the Mohave etiological theory of 

 this disorder is rooted in the "apprentice sorcerer" motif. Hiyam 

 ahwat differs from the misfortunes that befall unauthorized meddlers 

 with shamanism in that, in the present instance, the illness is not caused 

 by retributive witchcraft exercised by some irate shaman protecting 

 shamanistic prerogatives, but is directly due to the impersonal power 

 which resides in the feathered staves. In fact, certain feathers — such 

 as those of two or three species of hawks, one of which is called 

 su :kwily (chicken hawk ? ) , those of a turkey, those of a white, cranelike 



** In Haiti, at folklore shows held in the Theatre de la Verdure, professional performers 

 sometimes uncontrollably go into a trance. Dr. Louis ^lars told me that a Haitian 

 troupe, performing In Paris, was greatly embarrassed when one of the performers went 

 Into a spontaneous trance, right on the stage. 



^Compare the belief that scalpers and witch killers dream of blood (pt. 2, pp. 43-46), 

 and that in another mental disorder the dreamer sees himself covered with his wife's 

 secretions (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). 



