392 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BaU. 176 



home for 3 months. Two nights after she came home an owl came to our 

 corral ; it alighted on one of the mesquite trees and began to hoot. My brother's 

 wife got out of bed, went to the mesquite tree and began shooing away the 

 owl. When she came back into the house we told her that this was a sign that 

 there would be a death in our family, because this was the first time an owl 

 ever came there at night After a while my sister-in-law returned to the 

 hospital and died there within a short time. Almost the same thing happened 

 when a woman called Virmak died. After our father's death we stayed away 

 from our home for a while. The first night we returned to our house, four or 

 five owls were around and kept on hooting and screeching iu the mesquite 

 trees . . . and, sure enough, this girl died in less than 3 weeks. 



(II) Confession. — The prototype of all confessions made by 

 witches is the means whereby a yomig shaman first advertises liis 

 powers to the community. A person who feels that he received the 

 necessary powers to treat some illness will attend a gathering and 

 will mildly bewitch — using a minor form of love magic — a young 

 person of the opposite sex, who will immediately be treated by one of 

 the shamans who are routinely asked to see to it that no one is be- 

 witched dm-ing a gathering or feast. Since the young witch is 

 actually eager to make his powers known, he allows liis ''victim" to 

 reveal his name to her therapist, thus making an almost instantaneous 

 cure possible. Needless to say, this incident immediately becomes 

 known to the tribe as a whole, and even though people may, at first, 

 minimize the young shaman's powers,^^ in due time they will consult 

 Mm for minor ailment, and, if he is successful, his reputation as a 

 therapist becomes firmly established. It is important to stress that 

 even shamans who will never really bewitch anyone first advertise 

 their powers in this manner. Thus, at least once in his life every 

 shaman publicly displays his powers by bewitcliing someone. 



Turning now to genuine witches, their evil deeds can become known 

 to the community in several ways: 



(1) Some witches, who specialize in an illness which only they are 

 competent to cure, betray their identity by causing their victims to 

 contract this particular disease. In such cases the very nature of the 

 victim's illness is, in itself, a kind of trademark or confession (Case 

 100). 



(2) A witch who needs money very badly — perhaps because he is 

 an epileptic cripple (Case 103) who barely manages to eke out a 

 living — may start an epidemic, usually affecting children, of a type 

 which he is qualified to cure, in the hope of earning money by treating 

 his victims. In such instances the witch partly betrays himself by 

 being one of those who benefit by the epidemic. 



(3) A witch starting an epidemic may betray liimself by visiting 

 various people who will subsequently sicken, or else by simply stroll- 



« According to Ahma Huma :re, "At first people thought my powers were Bomething to 

 laugh about." For other slighting remarks, see Devereux, 1937 c. 



