Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 401 



not have lived this long (56 years) . They would have killed me long 

 before this. Shamans seldom lived to a ripe old age. But I would 

 have become a shaman all the same. I could not have helped it." ^ 

 The most striking thing about this statement was the markedly wistful 

 manner in which Hivsu : Tupo :ma spoke of the good old days when he 

 would have been killed in a manner befitting a shaman. This tallies 

 with the fact, known even to laymen, that shamans are far from happy 

 over the disappearance of witch slayings. Thus, as stated before, 

 according to Tcatc: "A witch who dies a natural death cries on his 

 deathbed, saddened by the knowledge that he is about to lose his hold 

 over his retinue of beloved ghosts." It is also significant that at the 

 trial of Anyay Ha:m's murderers several shamans testified in court 

 in favor of the defendants (Case 104). 



In view of this general attitude, it is not at all surprising that, soon 

 after confessing to me in strict confidence that he had bewitched 

 several people, Hivsu : Tupo :ma managed to kill himself in a typical 

 "accidentally on purpose" way. He became intoxicated, slept off his 

 drunkenness outdoors, in the middle of the winter, and contracted a 

 fatal case of pnemnonia (Devereux, 1948 i) . 



Further light is shed upon the attitude of witches toward witch 

 killings by the fact that several known witch killers were, themselves, 

 shamans and witches, who, had they lived earlier, would themselves 

 have been killed in due time. It is also necessary to recall in this 

 context that witch killers run the risk of becoming psychotic, as a 

 result of their murderous activities, (pt. 2, pp. 45-46) . 



In brief, the entire witchcraft and witch-killing pattern is charac- 

 terized by countless ambivalences, ambiguities, and paradoxes, both 

 on the psychological and on the cultural level. It is therefore almost 

 mandatory to conclude that both witchcraft and the killing of witches 

 are largely expressions of individual psychopathology reinforced 

 and canalized by what is usually called "social pathology." (See 

 below.) 



CASE MATEEIAI, 



The case material about to be presented is uniform neither in scope 

 nor in quality. Some cases shed light chiefly on Mohave custom or on 

 the psychology of witch killers, while others enable us to get at least 

 a glimpse of the purely subjective factors which cause the witch to 

 seek death. In view of the fact that our chief topic is the vicarious 

 suicide of the witches, rather than the formal killing of witches, the 

 cases are arranged in a sequence of increasing insight into the sub- 

 jective motivation of the witch who courts death. The first case 

 (Case 95) makes no mention of any wish to die right away. Tlie 

 second (Case 96), recorded and published by Kroeber (1925 a), 



"This statement was made before he confessed to me In private that he, too, had 

 bewitched some of his relatives (Devereux, 1948 1). 



