210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



were coordinated with the dream-power- witchcraft-ghost complex of 

 Mohave culture, thus preserving and even reinforcing the overall 

 equilibrium of that culture. 



The nexus between the fower-connylex and charms is revealed in 

 many ways : 



{a) Despite the danger that a magic substance may eventually turn 

 against its owner, few Mohave hesitated to acquire a charm. In the 

 same way, only a few persons shrank from accepting shamanistic 

 powers, despite the risk that these powers too might eventually "go 

 wrong" and cause their owners to become witches (pt. 7, pp. 387-425). 



(5) "Wlien charms turn against their owners, they destroy them, 

 and sometimes even kill off their families as well. In the same way, 

 when a shaman's powers turn evil, he bewitches mainly his relatives 

 and those whom he loves. The ghosts of his beloved victims then 

 haunt him, and attempt to lure him to the land of the dead, imtil the 

 witch deliberately induces his victims' surviving relatives to kill him 

 (Kroeber, 1925 a) (pt. 7, pp. 387-425). 



(c) Another point of similarity between shamanistic powers and 

 charms is the fact that both are dangerous to laymen who attempt to 

 usurp them. This obvious apprentice sorcerer motif, together with 

 the "insane jealousy" of these charms, probably justifies an oedipal 

 interpretation of these magic substances and powers. This inter- 

 pretation is also supported by the belief that charms bring luck in 

 gambling, which is believed to be an orally determined trait (Bergler, 

 1943; Devereux, 1950 d) ; and in promiscuous amorous pursuits, 

 which, according to psychoanalytic theory, are determined partly by 

 a vain pursuit of a parental imago, and partly by miconscious homo- 

 sexual tendencies (Fenichel, 1945). The unconscious confusion be- 

 tween the maternal and paternal imago is probably determined by 

 oral fantasies, since, according to Mohave belief, unborn children are 

 "nursed" by their mother's husbands or lovers (Devereux, 1937 d; 

 1949 c). Summing up, among the Mohave, belief in magical sub- 

 stances appears to be due to a deviation, at the phallic-oedipal stage, 

 from "normal" (i.e., occidental) psychosexual development. 



The unconscious significa7ice of charms is a matter of conjecture, 

 although, from the viewpoint of psychoanalytic theory, they obvi- 

 ously fall into the general category of magical substances, whose 

 infantile prototypes are such body products as the excreta, milk, 

 semen, saliva, and sweat. The first of these is mentioned in Mohave 

 mythology (Bourke, 1889) as the means whereby the first act of 

 witchcraft was perpetrated. Saliva and sweat, which I have else- 

 where linked with milk and semen (Devereux, 1947 a), also play a 

 significant role in witchcraft, as well as in shamanistic therapy. In 

 brief, there can be no doubt that magical substances, like shamanistic 



