352 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



do. If this happens, the offended twin will sicken and die, and the 

 surviving twin will soon follow it back to heaven.^^ 



(8) If a twin dies for any of the seven reasons cited above, the sur- 

 viving twin usually also makes itself sick, so as to join the deceased in 

 heaven, as soon as possible. 



(9) There are also some — never formally stated — indications (Case 

 87) that a twin may also follow her mother, or her son, into death. 



The ability of twins to sicken and die at will supposedly ceases when 

 they marry, thereby signifying their willingness to live out man's nor- 

 mal span of life on earth. Nonetheless, even adult twins are treated 

 in an exceptionally considerate manner, and are never asked to discuss 

 their memories of heaven. Thus, when I asked Hama : Utce : to ar- 

 range for me an interview with her adult half-sister, who was the sur- 

 viving half of a pair of twins, Plama : Utce : asked me as a favor to 

 abandon this project, lest questions about her heavenly home should 

 offend her half-sister. 



Seen from the psychiatric point of view, the hypersensitiveness of 

 twins, which even the JNlohave consider to be more or less irrational 

 and extreme, has a marked paranoid tinge, as is shown by their prone- 

 ness to take offense, their irrational dislikes for unoffending persons, 

 their atypical (pt. 5, pp. 219-221) obsession with receiving absolutely 

 equal treatment, and their insistence on being treated better than other 

 children and adults. This diagnostic impression is further sub- 

 stantiated by the Mohave belief that twins are clairvoyant (Kroeber, 

 1925 a),^^ the point being that both actual feats (?) of clairvoyance 

 and claims of being clairvoyant have clearly paranoid psychic com- 

 ponents (Devereux, 1953 a). 



In addition to being paranoid, twins also appear to have a markedly 

 infantile character structure, even in adult life. According to the 

 Mohave, twins are not fully committed to life on earth until they 

 marry, although, once they are married they are — unlike other Mo- 

 have — exceptionally faithful spouses. Moreover, Case 87 shows that 

 they can become overly involved emotionally also with their mothers 

 and their children. This is quite unusual in some respects, since the 

 average Mohave's affective economy is characterized by the fact that 

 he is very fond of a fairly large number of friends and relatives, but — 

 except in early infancy, when he still thinks of the mother's womb as 

 "his place" (Devereux, 1947 a; and pt. 7, pp. 340-348) — is not liliely 

 to become passionately devoted to any single person and quite unlikely 

 to "fall in love" (pt. 3, pp. 91-106). By contrast, due to the special 



'lAllhough such twins were spousps in heaven and will, after their return to heaven, 

 be spouses again, on earth they do not marry each other, sinoe "they came to earth to live 

 like pco))le." Tliore are, however, tribes In which twins born to persons of certain classes 

 do marry each other (Loeh, 1058). 



'" Pulyl :k, who is something of a skeptic, was not quite certain that twins were neces- 

 sarily clairvoyant. 



