Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 209 



however, a somewhat puzzling reference in Bourke (1889) to the 

 drugging of Matavilye's daughter — whom Bourke calls Cathena — 

 because she prevented her sons from marrying. Bourke's informant 

 apparently did not name this drug ; he simply compared it to "kloky- 

 fum" (= chloroform). However, since the Mohave knew no other 

 intoxicating drug, Bourke's informant was probably referring to 

 datura. 



Likewise, even though the Mohave knew that large doses of datura 

 could kill a person, murder by poisoning was not mentioned by any 

 informant, and only one person — an unjustly accused shaman (Case 

 106) — appears to have drmik datura in order to kill himself. 



CASE 59 (Informant not recorded ; probably E. S.) : 



At X Indian school a bunch of Indian school girls of various tribes drank some 

 datura. When the teacher found them, she did not know what was the matter 

 with them, and the girls were unable to tell her what they had done, since, 

 by that time, they were "goofy" and foamed at the mouth. The teacher called 

 a doctor, but even he did not know what was the matter with them. The girls 

 recovered, however. 



Tentative diagnosis: Datura poisoning. 



The nexus between datura, witchcraft, and suicide is shown by the 

 fact that a shaman, unjustly accused of witchcraft, drank datura and 

 drowned himself in the Colorado River (Devereux, 1937 c; and Case 

 106). 



The relationship between datura, dreams, witchcraft, charms, and 

 transitory toxic states (Case 59) suggests that charms are the psycho- 

 logical equivalents of datura, and vice versa. It is also probable that, 

 in many respects, magic substances, drugs, and alcohol (Appendix, 

 pp. 505-548) satisfy a constellation of interrelated psychological 

 needs, most of which are rooted in the oral-sadistic stage, and are inti- 

 mately interwoven with death wishes and with the conscious denial 

 of these wishes (Lewin, 1946) . 



INTEEPEETATION 



The integration of charms with Mohave culture. — Although the 

 general problem of the cultural integration of borrowed traits is 

 beyond the scope of this discussion, it may be said that, usually, bor- 

 rowed traits either fill a major, but previously unsatisfied, need, or 

 else serve to expand a conspicuously significant cultural preoccupa- 

 tion. In the former case a vigorous new trait modifies the existing 

 cultural equilibrium, whereas in the latter instance it reinforces it. 



Charms, being allegedly alien objects, and hence dangerous ones, 

 were — a trifle artificially — coordinated with the rest of Mohave culture, 

 without ever acquiring the significance of, e.g.. Plains Indian medicine 

 bundles, and without ever being able to challenge the primacy of dream 

 experience as a source of power and of luck. To be specific, charms 



