348 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



little girl. I loolied at the child and said : 'She acts as though she were jealous 

 of your unborn baby. That is why she is making herself sick.' Strange to say, 

 Kunyii :th denied that she was pregnant once more. When she told me this lie, 

 I replied : 'Do not deny it, because if you do, I will not be able to cure your 

 child entirely.' Despite this, Kunyii :th kept on pretending that she was not 

 pregnant, though in due time she gave birth to a second daughter, also named 

 O :otc. The older daughter did recover, however. You met her only the other 

 day. 



Comment 



Two points call for special comment. The first of these is that little O :otc's 

 mother was the sister of two men (Oases 116 and 117) who had committed 

 suicide. If these suicides occurred before little O :otc became ill — which can 

 no longer be ascertained at this late date — it is quite likely that the diagnos- 

 tician, Hivsu : Tupo :ma — who was keenly aware of the tendency of suicides to 

 occur in clusters (pt. 7, pp. 460-478) — may have felt inclined to impute to his little 

 patient the tavaknyi :k type of suicidalness, no matter what ailed her, simply 

 because he would have expected her to have it. As for Kunyii :th's refusal to 

 admit that she was pregnant, it suggests that she felt at least unconsciously 

 responsible for her daughter's illness, even though she expressed this guilt in a 

 manner which was compatible with the Mohave Indian woman's notorious ten- 

 dency to deny that she is pregnant (Devereux, 1948 b).° 



SUICIDE or TWINS 



The Mohave have two logically incompatible, but psychologically 

 perfectly complementary and well-articulated, sets of beliefs concern- 

 ing twins. These two patterns are so complex and elaborate (Dev- 

 ereux, 1941) that only those traits which have a direct bearing upon 

 the problem of the "suicide" of twins can be considered in the present 

 context. 



The official or primary belief, according to Kroeber (1925 a) and 

 others, is that twins are eternal heavenly beings, who were not created 

 and have no parents. When twins — who are closely associated with 

 rain and thunder — decide to visit the earth, they descend into a wom- 

 an's womb during a rainstorm, at the precise moment when she is being 

 impregnated by a man. Their purpose in assuming a human shape is 

 to visit the earth, in order to become acquainted with earthly condi- 

 tions. Hence, even though they possess the mature minds of old per- 

 sons from the moment of their birth — and, presumably, even while still 

 in utero — they behave like other babies, but understand everything 

 that is said around them. This means that persons consorting with 

 infant twins must "watch their tongues," lest these wise babies should 

 be offended by some careless remark. These heavenly visitors are 



^ Thus, after translating the case history given al)ove, Hania : Utce : ridiculed the 

 tendency of jMohave women to deny that they are pregnant, even going so far as to drape 

 their shawls in a manner likely to conceal their pregnant state. She also mentioned that 

 this latter custom may be alluded to in the personal name Humar Tudhu :lyl£ = baby 

 hidden. Note in this context that two women (Cases 45 and 46) denied, even to themselves, 

 that they were pregnant and therefore erroneously believed themselves to be suffering from 

 hiwey lak (pt. 4, pp. 150-175). Humar Tudhu :lyl{ had suicidal wishes. (Supplementary 

 Case A.) 



