Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSTCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 407 



because they too believed in her guilt. This omission, when taken in conjunction 

 with the fact that someone actually tried to warn O :otc, suggests that only the 

 great prestige of the witch killers persuaded O :otc's relatives that she was guilty — 

 or else caused them to pretend that they too believed her to be guilty, in order 

 not to have to fight two famous braves and witch killers. The fact that :otc 

 was never married, as well as her extraordinary stoical courage, suggest that 

 this shamaness was a relatively masculine type of personality. 



CASE 100 (Informants : Hivsu : Tupo :ma and Hama : Utce :) : 



Ah'a Kuparm (cottonwood fallen) of the Tcatc gens, a 45-year-old fullblood 

 Mohave shaman, began to treat upper respiratory tract infections (colds, pneu- 

 monia, and influenza), as well as a certain disease of children which resembles 

 the tavaknyi:k ailment (Devereux, 1947 a; and pt. 7, pp. 340-348, at the 

 age of 20. He was, at first, a "good shaman," but, around 1890, he decided to 

 increase his income by treating people whom he, himself, had bewitched. He 

 therefore started an epidemic of a kind which he — and only he — could cure. 

 When people began to sicken and to die, Ah'a Kupa :m's own relatives were the 

 first to accuse him of witchcraft, because the epidemic had started at his camp. 

 Despite the curative efforts of several shamans, some 15 children died in the 

 epidemic, because Ah'a Kupa :m's power (suma:tc) was so different from that 

 of the would-be healers that they did not know how to counteract it. 



The bereaved families finally made common cause, four men banding together 

 to kill the witch. These men were : 



(1) Tcuva:r(h), of the Syuly gens, a 85-year-old fullblood Mohave, who had 

 lost a brother and a sister in the epidemic. 



(2) Tenyamoek, of the O :otc gens, a 40-year-old fullblood Mohave, who had 

 lost a brother and a sister. 



(3) Kava:r(h)e, of the Mah gens, a 25-year-old fullblood Mohave, who had 

 lost his mother. 



(4) Amo: Me (sheep hoof) of the O :otc gens, a 30-year-old fullblood Mohave, 

 who had lost an uncle.'* 



Ah'a Kupa :m did not confess his guilt in so many words. However, the nature 

 of the epidemic which he had caused was, in itself, revealing enough to amount 

 to a confession. Hence, one afternoon, the four bereaved men went to his house 

 at Parker, Ariz., and, in the presence of his indifferent relatives, who did nothing 

 to protect him, beat him to death. This happened about 45 years ago (1890). 

 "Ah'a Kupa:m was the last (?) witch killed by the Mohave." (But cf. Case 

 104, etc.) 



Comment 



Although the epidemic supposedly affected mostly children, it is noteworthy 

 that the killers were men who had lost adult, or presumably adult, relatives 

 in the epidemic. This suggests that child mortality was so great at that time, 

 that the loss of a child was less traumatic than the death of an adult relative. 

 This inference is supported by the fact that in all "clustered" suicides (pt. 7, 

 pp. 465-478) the person who died first was an adult. The only indirect exception 

 to this rule is the belief that if a witch starts a pediatric epidemic which also 

 carries away some child he loves, he will become (vicariously) suicidal. In all 

 other cases, the triggering, or precedent-setting, death is that of an adult ; neither 

 parents nor relatives seem to become suicidal when a baby dies at birth, or of 

 t^vaknyi :k, or if one or both twins die in infancy. 



''* The fact that the killers were men who had lost adult relatives In this epidemic 

 which supposedly affected primarily children, will be discussed further below. 



