Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 361 



(Bill Williams River) they married and lived together, sayiug that they did 

 this so as to establish the custom of marriage. However, at that time the dead 

 Matavilye transformed various people into rocks and beasts, and this couple 

 too was turned into a strangely shaped rock formation called Hamasem 

 Kutco : yva.-* The iMohave say that this rock shows the couple kissing. "The 

 girl sits erect, proud of what she had done, but the man is bowed down by shame. 

 That is why no Mohave will marry his sister." " 



The rocks just mentioned are approximately 30 miles from Tarker and about 

 a quarter of a mile from the Bill Williams River. Although these rocks are 

 quite famous, they are neither respected nor dreaded. Thus, Kohovan Kura :u, 

 a halfbreed who was a firm believer in the old ways, had some of his fields at 

 the very foot of this rock formation. He eventually sold these fields to a 

 Mexican, who farmed them without let or hindrance from the tribe. The rocks 

 themselves are rather striking in appearance, since they rise from the very rim 

 of a low mesa. Their top portion is black, while their lower portion is a 

 slightly yellow-hued reddish brown. The photographing of these rocks was not 

 objected to by anyone and the pictures which I had taken were examined by 

 many Mohave with considerable interest and approval (pi. 3) . 



The significance of this myth was explained by Tcatc and Hama : 

 Utce : as follows : "This incest story is just like a prophecy. It shows 

 that this kind of thing was going to happen also to (ordinary) peo- 

 ple. 'That is the way it was meant to be,' the Mohave say, 'one cannot 

 control fate.' It is fate that wipes out families, not the gods. [Do 

 you mean this in the sense that lightning is not the cause of thunder, 

 but simply a sign that thunder is about to be heard?] Yes — people 

 commit incest because they are going to die out. Their extinction is 

 not even due to witchcraft. It was just meant to be that way." "This 

 cycle is not a dance song. It is sung in the house by a man who sits 

 on his upturned soles" (i.e., in the traditional Mohave manner, cf. 

 Kroeber, 1925 a). 



A discussion of the latent content of this myth is not necessary in 

 the present context, particularly since such an analysis has been made 

 available elsewhere (Devereux, 1939 a). 



On the other hand, the myth in question does contain one explicit 

 statement which has a direct bearing on our thesis that the only true 

 Mohave wedding ritual is that which takes place on the occasion of 

 incestuous marriages. 



The myth just summarized states that Tumarnp'a and his sister 

 contracted an incestuous marriage so as to establish^ and to set a 

 precedent for^ the custom of getting married. This specification is 

 quite striking, since it implies that the sister's one-night relationship 

 with a stranger did not constitute a real marriage, even though it 

 parallels m every respect both modern practice and the marriage pat- 

 terns outlined in the Masfamho mytli. "V\niat is more, this finding is 



21 Kroeber (1925 a) calls it Chimusam luicholva. Hivsu : Tupo : ma called it Tcamosem 

 Kutcoyv ; Mohovan Kura: u called it Tciimusem Kutco: va : ; and I'ulyi : k, the lin- 

 guistic informant, called it Hamasem Kutco yva. 



22 This specification fully dovetails with the fact that even Mohave women concede 

 that women are looser than men. 



