420 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull, 175 



Of course, by this time slae was on the downgrade and, like any wanton kamalo :y, 

 was considered fair game (Devereux, 1948 f ). 



It was at this time that Sahaykwisa : fell in love with an elderly man named 

 Tcuhum, who, like herself, was of the Nyolte gens.' Tcuhum refused to cohabit 

 with her, however, telling her : "You are a man." The spited and angry Sa- 

 haykwisa : thereupon bewitched him, in order to have intercourse at least with 

 his ghost in dream. Yet, despite his refusal to cohabit with her, Tcuhum died 

 without revealing to anyone that she had bewitched him, which led people to 

 believe that he must have wanted to become her victim — i.e., because, in a way, 

 he loved her (pt. 7, pp. 38^-386) . 



After Tcuhum's death Sahaykwisa : started an affair with Tcuhum's son 

 Suhura :ye, of the Nyolte gens, who was at that time about 40 or 45 years of 

 age.' At the same time she also had an affair with Suhura rye's friend Ilyku- 

 tcemidho :, of the O :otc gens, who was about 50 years old. These three traveled 

 together to a certain place, some 30 miles north of Needles, where all three in- 

 tended to work for a living.^ However, by this time, Sahaykwisa : longed so 

 much for the company of those whom she had bewitched that she began to look 

 for a chance to be killed, so as to be able to join her retinue of ghosts forever. 

 Hence, during that trip — i.e., either while traveling north, or else after reaching 

 her destination — she became drunk once more and openly told her lovers that 

 she had bewitched Tcuhum and boasted of it until the two baited men picked 

 her up and threw her into the Colorado River, where she drowned. 



I (Hivsu: Tupo:ma) was living at that time in Needles and, some two weeks 

 after Sahaykwisa :'s murder, I heard that people had noticed some buzzards 

 circling over a sandbank. AVhen they investigated, they found Sahaykwisa :'s 

 partly decomposed body, which had run aground there. I and some others then 

 picked up the corpse and carried it back to the Mohave settlement, where it was 

 cremated in the usual manner. At first people thought that she had jumped 

 into the river while drunk (suicide 1), but later learned that she had been 

 murdered. They did nothing about it, because witches should be killed and wish 

 to be killed. It is said that, except for Tcuhum, who, though of her own gens, 

 was not really related to her, Sahaykwisa : had not bewitched any one of her 

 relatives." 



[What happened to Sahaykwisa :'s former wives?] One of them, a woman 

 named Nyolte, of Sahaykwisa :'s own gens, is still alive. [Could I see her?] 

 You should not even try to talk to her about her life with Sahaykwisa : — she 

 is still quite touchy about that episode and does not like to be reminded of it. 



Comment 



A meaningful interpretation of the preceding case history is impossible unless 

 one can bring oneself to ignore its scabrous and grotesque features, so as to 

 perceive the human being behind the anecdote. Only then can one realize that. 



' Since prostitutes and promiscuous women have strong oedipal fixations, the fact that 

 Sahaykwisa : fell in love with an elderly man of her own gens could almost have been 

 predicted on psychoanalytic grounds only. 



8 This, too, is typical oedipal behavior, corresponding to a transfer of one's affections 

 from an older father figure to that man's son, who represents a brother. 



* It Is hard to escape the Inference that Suhura .-ye knew of Sahaykwisa :'s relations with 

 Ilykutcemidho :. 



'0 This detail, when taken In conduction with the fact that there is no mention 

 whatsoever of Sahaykwisa :'s own relatives in tliis case history, has important 

 implications. It suggests tliat Sahaykwisa : had not simply been rejected hy Iier family 

 because of her lesbianism, but had also tcithdrawn from them, so as to escape potentially 

 unmanageable oedipal-incestuous temptations. Moreover, she was never referred to as 

 "Nyoltic." 



