Devereuxl MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 385 



Eustachian tubes. This is a fairly pLiusible supposition, since ear- 

 aches were frequently mentioned as a proof that one was magically 

 shot (bewitched) during one's last visit to the Reungao lowlands. 



(3) Once the ailing person becomes convinced that he was be- 

 witched, it is quite understandable that all his thoughts and dreams 

 should be focused on the witch. 



(4) This preoccupation, combined with the culturally fostered con- 

 viction that the witch obsessively loves his victim (pt. 7, pp. 387-426), 

 presumably suffices to cause the victim to love his magical assailant. 

 This inference dovetails perfectly with the Mohave Indians' tendency 

 to marry those who want them, rather than those whom they want 

 (Devereux, 1951 f)." 



(5) The fact that the witch is often a relative of the victim — i.e., the 

 fact that he is a tabooed incestuous love object — in itself suffices to ex- 

 plain why the victim is sexually so attracted in fantasy to his (or 

 her) supposed killer, and so eager to meet all his demands. 



(6) Illness, the conviction of being bewitched, and a constant ob- 

 session with the witch suffice to bring about a state of psychic isolation 

 or withdrawal, in which an attachment to the powerful witch, who sup- 

 posedly loves one (usually incestuously), can come into being in a 

 manner which is relatively similar to the way in which the prisoner 

 subjected to brainwashing com.es to love his interrogator in a maso- 

 chistic and self-destructive manner. 



"\'\niile the preceding remarks are admittedly inferential, they are 

 greatly strengthened by the fact that not only laymen but even con- 

 fessed witches are convinced that their victims are passionately 

 devoted to, and enthralled by them. 

 CASE 92 (Informant: Hivsu : Tupo:ma.) : 



While intoxicated, Hivsu: Tupo : ma spontaneously confessed to me that he 

 had bewitched two of his close relatives: his uterine half brother ("because he 

 was my mother's favorite, because he once broke my arm and because he inter- 

 fered with my affair with his daughter") and his uterine half brother's daugh- 

 ter, who had been his mistress. (Cf. Case 139.) 



Hivsu : Tupo rma's description of his relations with this girl, both 

 while she was alive and after she became his ghostly captive, differed 

 significantly from the way in which he usually described both his own 

 sexual adventures and those of others. While leaving nothing to the 

 imagination, as usual, his account of this affair was very different from 

 his usual rabelaisian anecdotes; his narrative was tenderly sensual 

 rather than humorously coarse. Moreover, he gave the impression 

 that his dream relations with this captive ghost were, if possible, even 



» This tendency explains in part why older Mohave persons often manage to marry very 

 young spouses and why the lesbian Sahaykwiea : (Case 105) was able to marry at least 

 three times. 



