344 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



It is of some interest in this context that, according to the Mohave, 

 the pregnant woman ceases to have milk after the sixth lunar month 

 of pregnancy has elapsed. This belief is presumably due to the belief 

 that the 6-lunar-month-old fetus has an immutable sociobiological 

 identity that is no longer susceptible of being modified by intercourse 

 ■with a man who is not the original impregnator (Devereux, 1937 d, 

 1949 c) ; begins to feed orally, "chewing and swallowing" its food 

 (semen) inside the womb ^^ (Devereux, 1948 b) ; and also starts dream- 

 ing those dreams that pertain to the modalities of birth (or, in the case 

 of future shamans and bewitched fetuses, to stillbirth, cf. pt. 7, pp. 

 331-339. It is also during this period that the fetus has those dreams 

 that determine the course of its entire life. 



The Mohave specify that whereas some infants react to forcible 

 weaning by "just giving up, when they see that it is no use, and that 

 no milk will come, no matter how hard they suckle," others react by 

 causing a great deal of trouble. The — often fatal and allegedly 

 suicidal — illness of this latter group was described in some detail by 

 a shaman specializing in the cure of this ailment : 



Hivsii: Tupo:ma's statement (1933) : The suckling has the power to sense 

 that its mother is pregnant once more, because her womb was formerly "its own 

 place." It can, therefore, sense that someone else is now occupying it. This 

 ability vanishes when the child reaches the age of three (which is the usual age 

 at weaning). The 3-year-ol(l child can therefore not be hurt by something 

 that it can no longer sense. Until that age, however, the child is jealous of the 

 intruder. It feels angry and hurt and makes itself sick from spite. [Would 

 a nursing child be angry if its father impregnated another woman?] No, it 

 only resents the presence of an intruder into its "own place," its mother's womb. 

 [Does it matter whether the mother was impregnated by the child's own father, 

 or by another man?] No — the child is only concerned over the intrusion of a 

 new fetus into the place it formerly occupied and still considers its own. Of 

 course, the mother's milk dries up during the sixth (lunar) month of pregnancy 

 and the child resents not being given any more milk. Even if it wants to play 

 away from its mother, it lacks "pep" and soon comes back to her, whining for 

 milk and crying bitterly. Then, because there is no milk to be had, it will make 

 itself sick and fade away, because it does not get what it wants. There are 

 sometimes also other causes for the child's fretfulness. For example, the child 

 may have been scolded or "corrected" " when its parents got all worked up 

 over the fuss it made. A sensitive child, who is not only deprived of mother 

 milk, but is also scolded or corrected, will resent this and will make Itself sick. 

 When it thinks of the intruder, it just lies there lethargically, with closed eyes. 

 The food it receives does not agree with it and its bowels are loose and give 

 trouble. Its feces are dark green in color and might even contain streaks of 

 blood. Moreover, though it may not refuse a piece of candy offered by some- 

 one, eating the candy will only worsen its condition and it will end up by being 



"s The unborn fetus does, In fact, swallow some of the amniotic fluid, as is shown by the 

 presence of meconium (fetal feces) in the intestines of neonates. 



*« In view of the Mohave Indian's reluctance to strike children (Devereux, 1950 h) it Is 

 interesting to note that the interpreter — an acculturated woman who did, in fact, spank 

 her son — used the euphemism "to correct" rather than the straightforward term "spank" 

 or "hit." (For a discussion of such evasive euphemisms, cf. Devereux, 1956 a.) 



