248 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



CHOREA 



Since it is notoriously difficult to describe a choreiform seizure in 

 ■words, I simply imitated a person known to me, who had Huntington's 

 chorea, and then asked my informants whether they knew anyone 

 having such symptoms. 



Tcatc said that this type of disorder was unknown among the 

 Mohave, but Hilyera Anyay declared that such cases do exist. 



I have seen some people act that way, but I cannot recall their names. These 

 people have died, and I don't think about the dead.^" 



CASE 69: 



A Yuma informant, Barney Jackson, then visiting Parker, Ariz., stated that 

 a Yuma Indian was known to be suffering from this disease. 



SPEECH AND HEARING DISORDERS 



It is not in the least surprising that a tribe that admires orators 

 and skillful conversationalists (Devereux, 1949 e) should equate deaf- 

 mutism with yamomk, i.e., with psychosis. This viewpoint w^as ex- 

 pressed with great clarity by the shaman Ahma Huma:re (1938) : 



Suppose there is a person who is mute, or a person who goes insane from 

 (hahnok) sickness. There is one, and only one, name given to this. When we 

 describe insane acts, we use the term "yamomk." That is all. 



Even when discussing the general problem of the etiology of mental 

 disorders Ahma Huma : re systematically equated psychosis with 

 muteness : 



Insanity, the way I have been told about it, is known (revealed) in two 

 ways. One way is that a person does not talk, but uses signs instead. Such a 

 person is called "crazy." Then there is an insanity caused by (hahnok) sick- 

 ness. Should the Mohave intermarry with their relatives, there will, in some 

 cases, be mutes among their offspring. These mutes are understood by their 

 parents and by such of their relatives as may be living with them, but they 

 are the only ones who can interpret the signs which such persons make. The 

 Mohave believe that a person who is that way (i.e., mute) is merely fulfilling 

 a kind of prophecy given to the Indians: (It was instituted at the time of 

 Creation that) persons who marry their relatives will sometimes have mute 

 offsprings. The Indians call these mute persons "yamomk" (insane). (Pt. 5, 

 pp. 251-253.) 



Speech disturbances may be due to a variety of causes : 

 Supernatural causes: 



The Mohave believe that no one is able to climb "Superstition 

 Mountain" (Avikwame). According to Hivsu: Tuporma — 



They say that some whites, who tried to climb this mountain, lost their way 

 and died, despite the fact that a search had been organized to find them. In 



^ It is taboo to mention the names of tbe dead (Eroeber, 1925 a). 



