406 BUREAU OF AJMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



until after their sister had died. Hence, it is perhaps i)ermissible to suspect 

 that this was the first time the two brothers came face to face with witchcraft 

 and that it took them some time to decide to become witch-killers. Once they 

 decided to function as public executioners, they must have found it easy to slay 

 O :otc, who is supposed to have killed some of their nephews and nieces and to 

 have harmed the tribe as a whole (Case 99). Be that as it may, the two broth- 

 ers managed to acquire the reputation of having been, in their time, the tribe's 

 chief protectors against witches, and were praised for it as late as 1938, i.e., 

 several decades after their death. 



CASE 99 (Informants : Hivsu : Tupo :ma and Hama : Utce :) : 



O :otc, of the O :otc gens, a 40-year-old fullblood Mohave woman, specialized 

 in the cure of "colds," and especially of "epidemic colds." In addition, she was 

 also a noted eye specialist. Although O :otc had never married, she was not a 

 virgin, and appears to have led a fairly normal and active sex life. She became 

 a practicing shaman at the age of 30, and was first accused of witchcraft at 

 the age of 40, during an epidemic of severe colds which occurred approximately 

 in the year 1902. "O :otc liked to kill adults. In addition, she also wanted to 

 earn some money, by treating the people whom she had bewitched." This 

 epidemic killed so many people, including even her own brother's two daughters, 

 that the Mohave were beginning to get restless. Finally two fullblood Mohave 

 Indian brothers of the Nyoltc gens, who had also lost several nephews and 

 nieces during the epidemic, decided to kill her. These noted braves 

 (kwanami:hye), witch killers and "real persons" (ipa: taha:na) were the 50- 

 year-old Atceyer Thume: and the 45-year-old Ampot Tcavudho: (dust wind), 

 who was also a "good shaman" specializing in the cure of arrow wounds.'* 

 These brothers belonged to the Nyoltc gens." 



The two braves and witch killers made no attempt to keep their plan a secret. 

 Hence, when, one afternoon, they set out for O :otc's house, which stood on the 

 sandy stretch of ground now occupied by the Parker, Ariz., church, a well-meaning 

 person hurried ahead, to warn O :otc that two braves were coming to kill her. 

 O :otc, who was parching corn at that time, took the news quite casually, how- 

 ever, and merely said: "Let them come!" "She herself was just like a 

 kwanami :hye — very brave, because she had this (shamanistic?) power." She 

 kept on parching her corn until the two killers arrived and beat her to death 

 with sticks. This happened in the presence of O :otc's relatives, who, apparently, 

 did not try to defend her. These two braves also killed another witch (Case 98). 



Comment 



The preceding case history illustrates the similarity between witch and witch 

 killer in two ways. One of the two witch killers was himself a shaman, and 

 O :otc's stoical attitude in the face of cei'tain death caused the informants to 

 compare her to a brave. It is also noteworthy that, in this particular instance, 

 the informants did not specify that the witch's relatives failed to defend her 



'• The name of this man was first mistakenly recorded as Apot Tclmmatha : and one In- 

 formant said that he was the father of my old Informant Tcatc. This Is absolutely Im- 

 possible, chiefly because at a time when Ampot Tcavudho : was said to have been 45 years 

 old, Tcatc herself must have already been a middle-aged woman. 



" This gentile afflliatlon was questioned later on by Pulyl :k, who added that he could 

 not recall their gentile afiiliation. Since the name of their sister (Case 98) was Nyortc, It 

 is necessary to assume that Pulyl :k was mistaken in saying they were not of the Nyoltc 

 gens. The gens of these men could not have been anything but Nyoltc, if their sister's 

 name was Nyortc, unless all informants forgot to specify that Nyortc was not a full, but 

 only a half, sister of these men, which seems unlikely. 



