Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 287 



wise expressed, the prototypal death was a vicarious suicide. It is, 

 therefore, not surprising that the Mohave should believe in the exist- 

 ence of at least three types of vicarious suicide (pt. 7, pp. 371-430). 



(2) More specifically, Matavilye chose to become the willing victim 

 of witchcraft (pt. 7, p. 373 fn.), and induced his daughter to bewitch 

 him, by means of a provocatively seductive act which angered 

 her and presumably also made her anxious, since it stimulated her 

 oedipal impulses." In brief, when she bewitched her father, Mata- 

 vilye's daughter "loved him but %Yas angry with him" ; moreover, she 

 bewitched her sexually most tabooed relative, who had aroused her 

 incestuous impulses. This is precisely the state of mind which the 

 Mohave ascribe to the witch (pt. 7, pp. 387-426). 



(3) Coyote stole Matavilye's heart, exactly the way the Mohave 

 witch, fearful of being betra^^ed by the owllike creature into which 

 his cremated victim's heart becomes transformed, seeks to steal and 

 to kill this creature before it calls out his name, for everyone to hear 

 (pp. 390-392). 



Needless to say, this abridged myth fragment contains also many 

 other culturally well-established items, such as miderground travel, 

 the magical use of excretions, and several other cultural practices 

 and beliefs.^2 IVliat concerns us chiefly in the present context is, 

 however, the fact that this myth fragment, even in its abridged form, 

 illuminates the whole range of Mohave beliefs related to death from 

 any cause whatsoever, including especially suicide. In fact, it is 

 doubtful that any purely rational attempt to bring together so many 

 threads and skeins of belief, practice, and ritual in a brief narrative 

 could even approximate the many-faceted, dreamlike complexity of 

 this myth, which emerged from some early Mohave's unconscious, and 

 was elaborated by his preconscious. It is this obvious multivalence of 

 their myths that presumably enables the Mohave to cling to the be- 

 lief that everything in life duplicates some mythical event and makes 

 it possible for him to "acquire in dream" the magical powers needed 

 for coping with such new problems as gunshot wounds (Devereux, 

 1942 c). 



*^ The anal offense and the genital offense are psychologically equivalent. Indeed, not 

 only are children prone to develop theories of anal birth, but puch beliefs are even 

 Institutionalized among the Mohave, where male transvestitos pretend to give birth anally 

 (Devereux, 1937 b). Compare also the seeds in Coyote's stools which made agriculture 

 possible and infanticide obsolete (Devereux, 1948 d). All this is one more proof in support 

 of the thesis (Devereux, 1953 c) that, on the latent level, all versions of a myth — including 

 even deliberately bowdlerized ones — -say the same thing. 



"According to Freud, were one able to analyze one single dream completely, this would 

 be tantamount to a complete analysis of the dreamer. It is tempting to suggest that 

 the same may be true of any myth, if one could trace all its Implications aud ramifications. 

 In fact. It Is especially tempting to suggest this with regard to Mohave myths, in which 

 condensation plays a tremendous and recognized role (Devereux, 1957 b). Be that as it 

 may, the myth fragment just cited contains, in a condensed form, allusions to practically 

 every form of death, suicide, and funeral practice. 



