200 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



once more at work. Later on this girl returned to Parker and died of her 

 seizures. Neither she nor her second husband was related to Kwathany Hi :wa. 



In order to understand the preceding case history, it is necessary to give 

 additional data about Kwathany Hi: wa, who was so definitely thought of as 

 "the" leading witch among the Mohave, that one informant even alleged that 

 he was the "only witch in the Parker Valley." In discussing him, Hama : Utce : 

 spontaneously asked Hivsu: Tupo:ma whether Kwathany Hi:wa was re- 

 sponsible also for the big 1918 influenza epidemic. Hivsu : Tupo :ma explained 

 that no one had been blamed for that particular epidemic, but that subsequent 

 epidemics were said to have been caused by Kwathany Hi:wa and also by 

 a certain Anyay Ha :m, also called I-lyi:, who was later on murdered by a 

 married couple (Case 104) whom he had threatened with witchcraft (Devereux, 

 1948 f). One reason that Kwathany Hi:wa was blamed for such epidemics is 

 that he happens to specialize, inter alia, in the treatment of colds, aching joints, 

 rheumatisms, and witchcraft. 



He is said to have started to practice witchcraft at the age of 20. In addition, 

 by the time he was 25, he was also a recognized healer, although this did 

 not cause him to desist from the practice of witchcraft, thus antagonizing 

 many people, including Hama: Utce:, who specifically accused him of having 

 "bewitched all my family." 



He bewitches people because he likes them. However, he also bewitched 

 Walapa : e Nahakwe (Walapai's knife), of the Vi :mak gens, a fullblood Mohave, 

 approximately 55 or 60 years of age. This man was a powerful shaman, who 

 specialized in the treatment of bewitched persons. Walapa : e Nahakwe doubted 

 Kwathany Hi :wa's powers, but the latter was the stronger of the two and 

 bewitched his antagonist about 9 years ago (perhaps in the 1920's) just to 

 show him. On another occasion Tcatc said: "Once Kwathany Hi:wa told me 

 that he had exiled this shaman's ghost beyond the sacred mountain Avi- 

 kwame, to the west, and that he would keep him there until he, too, died, at 

 which time the soul of the other shaman would (automatically) be released 

 and go to the land of the dead. I was so afraid of Kwathany Hi :wa that I 

 never repeated his confession to anyone. People would like to kill him, but 

 they are afraid of the law." 



When Hivsu: Tupo:ma was asked whether it would be possible to talk to 

 Kwathany Hi:wa, he replied: "He would tell you nothing. He is afraid to 

 talk. Even his own relatives accuse him of witchcraft, because he killed 

 some of them. Were it not for the Indian Agent, he would have been killed 

 long ago. Whenever a dying relative of his accuses him of having bewitched 

 him, Kwathany Hi:wa breaks down and cries, and denies having done it. 

 His married niece, Po:ta, of the Po :tji gens, who died recently, also kept 

 saying that he had bewitched her." 



Po:tu was not the only one who was obsessed by the idea that Kwathany 

 Hi:wa might bewitch her. The same notion literally haunted Hama: Utce: for 

 quite a while. Thus, when he repeatedly passed Hama: Utce:'s house, where 

 we were working, Hama : Utce : was genuinely scared, and said : "He bewitches 

 us, because he likes us. He is very superstitious. He is a killer and a coward 

 at heart. We say that all shamans are cowards at heart, though I would not 

 say so in front of Hivsu : Tupo :ma, who is, himself, a shaman." 



Hama: Utce's fears appear to have had a personal, though culturally sanc- 

 tioned, basis.38 "When my cousin's former husband told me that he would 



»8 The relevance of the following passage is depedent upon the accuracy of my recall 

 that the person who had married Hama : Utce :'s cousin was, In fact, Kwathany Hi :wa. 

 Unfortunately, the relevant page of the original field notes was lost, and the typed notes 

 contain no name. 



