Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 411 



being his own brothers or Iialf-brotliers, it is likely that Nyolie was not Ka- 

 maye :hue's niece. 



(2) Kamaye :hue is said to have been a member of the Nyoltc gens, while 

 Nyoltc's "other" maternal uncles were said to have belonged to the Mu :th and 

 to the Mah gens respectively. This could have happened only if the mother of 

 these men had had three sons by three different men, which, given the instability 

 of Mohave marriages, is not impossible, but also not very probable. The only 

 alternative explanation would be that the informants were mistaken in saying 

 that Kamaye :hue was of the Nyoltc gens — a hypothesis which is not altogether 

 unlikely, for the following reasons : If Kamaye :hue was a full brother of Nyoltc's 

 mother, then the mother too must have been Nyoltc, and must therefore have 

 married a man of her own gens, in order to have a daughter also named Nyoltc. 

 This is not impossible, but somewhat improbable, since marriages within the 

 gens were still extremely rare during the period under consideration. 



In brief, it is simpler to assume that I'ulyi :k was right in saying that Ka- 

 maye :hue simply belonged to the same gens as his victim, but was not directly 

 related to her. 



Kamaye :hue's suicidalness is not interpretable in subjective (psychological) 

 terms, since we have no strictly personal data which would explain why he chose 

 to boast of being a witch at this particular time. The only clue is provided by 

 the fact that Kamaye :hue must have been an unusually disturbed person, very 

 eager for tribal limelight, to have become a practicing shaman while still 

 in his middle teens. Moreover, the very fact that he specialized in the cure of 

 witchcraft automatically implied that he could also bewitch people, since one 

 can only cure those diseases which one is also able to cause. Hence, by deciding, 

 consciously or unconsciously, to specialize in this type of shamanism, he prac- 

 tically made certain from the start that he would sooner or later be accused of 

 witchcraft and killed. 



CASE 103 (Informants : Hivsu : Tupo :ma and Tcatc) : 



Tcavakonj?, of the O :otc gens, a 40-year-old fullblood Mohave, had acquired 

 in 1900, at the age of 35, the power to cure dysentery. Tcavakong was, moreover, 

 an epileptic, who during one of his atcoo :r hanyienk seizures (pt. 2, pj). 72-76) 

 had fallen into the fire and had burned his hand so badly that it was useless 

 ever after. "He did not seem to have any feelings (sensitivity) when he burned 

 himself." He concealed his crippled hand in a tobacco bag attached to a spoon 

 which hung from a cord tied around his neck. For some reason the informants 

 specified that Tcavakong was an epileptic but not an alcoholic." 



Tcavakong was so poor that he had to earn his living chiefly by singing and 

 dancing for tourists at the Harvey House in Needles.^ 



In 1905 an epidemic killed a number of children and people began to suspect 

 Tcavakong of having caused it. Tcavakong himself confirmed these suspicions, 

 by saying that he had started the epidemic because he needed the money which 

 he would earn by treating the ailing children. "He was that mean !" 



Hikoc Hmaykuta :va, of the Nyoltc gens, a 40-year-old fullblood Mohave em- 

 ployed in the Santa Fe Railroad roundhouse, had lost a daughter and, according 



*i This specification is rather Interesting, since even people who are not epileptics 

 can have convulsive seizures while In a state of severe intoxication. Whether or not the 

 Mohave realize that severe intoxication can cause seizures Is unfortunately not known. 



82 McNlchols (1944) states that a crippled Mohave, named Dancing Dick, used to dance 

 at the Harvey House. This man was said to have been crippled when — believing him to 

 be dead — people tried to cremate him prematurely, which suggests that he may have 

 been an epileptic. It is therefore likely that Tc^vikong andi Dancing Dick are one and the 

 same person. 



492655—61 27 



