Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 205 



it causes the tongue to become stiff. (Paralysis? Astringent effect?) 

 In some instances, people who own this charm also partake of datura. 

 It was possible to record only a Yuma Indian instance in which the 

 owner of this charm also drank datura. 



CASE 53 (Informant: Hama: Utce:) : 



I knew a Yuma Indian who owned this charm and also drank datura. I was 

 even present at his funeral, because it took place the very day (1933) on which 

 I arrived at Fort Yuma in order to attend the cremation of my aunt, who had 

 married a Yuma Indian. This man was an exceptional shinuey player and also 

 excelled in all other sports. He used to own some of this ground white-and- 

 black stone charm, in order to win favor with the girls. When he died, his older 

 brother, contrary to custom, decided to keep the corpse until next morning. 

 When the other brothers protested, he offered to remain with the corpse all night, 

 and told the others to go home. The younger brothers were so indignant, how- 

 ever, that they threatened to kill him : "You will be the next one to die," they 

 said. When, despite their protests, their oldest brother refused to yield, they 

 went home, but one of them became so indignant that he got drunk, came back 

 to where his oldest brother kept his vigil and stabbed him. The wounded man 

 was eventually discovered in a ditch and was transported to the hospital. In- 

 formant implied that this family tragedy was caused by the charm which the 

 dead man had owned, since the behavior of the oldest brother was unusual and 

 highly irregular. 



(e) Kate humu.'kwa^ called in English "the stone," is a lodestone. 

 In discussing this substance I propose to deviate from the system of 

 presentation adopted for the description of other charms and will 

 reproduce instead Tcatc's account. This narrative, which shifts from 

 case history to theory, and back to case history again, was related 

 in the tense, clipped, preaching style of Mohave orators (Kroeber, 

 1925 a) , which conveys more convincingly than could any formal state- 

 ment the awe which this substance inspired in an old, very level-headed 

 and rather skeptical, though old-fashioned, Mohave. 



"The lodestone is a 'drug' which brings luck, but also drives people 

 crazy. They call it katc humu :kwa, which means 'tlie stone.' They 

 get it for luck. It is usually a shaman who gets it — not just anyone. 

 They think that they are lucky in love then — that they can get any 

 woman. They also think that it makes them lucky in gambling. 

 They carry it all the time. When you carry something like that, you 

 cannot copulate, nor eat salt or meat." 



CASE 54 (Informant not recorded; probably Tcatc) : 



About 10 years ago (1928?) Hulymanyo :va, of the Nyoltc gens, who was at 

 that time quite young — maybe only 20 — and was living at Blythe with his wife 

 Po :ta, got himself a lodestone. When he became sick, people claimed that his 

 illness was caused by that lodestone. They brought him to the hospital here, at 

 Parker. Dr. Nettle was our doctor there. You could hear him — he went out of 

 his head ! They wanted to take him to Needles, but old Atci : Akw(o)ath, whose 

 wife was related to Hulymanyo :va, said that they could not take him away. 



