Derereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 435 



Be that as it may, all remembered Mohave attempts to commit 

 suicide by fire occurred at funerals, though Hivsu: Tupo:ma did 

 mention that a — presumably non-Mohave — transvestite "might" jump 

 into the fire, if people teased him too much. This may possibly be 

 significant, since Herakles, who committed suicide by fire, dressed as 

 a woman at least twice in his life : once when hiding from his enemies 

 and once to please Omphale " and had several homosexual relations 

 in the course of his agitated life. 



A minor, but quite interesting, sidelight upon suicide by fire is 

 provided by the ISIohave belief that convulsives who become incon- 

 tinent during their seizures are markedly prone to fall into the fire 

 (pt. 2, pp. 72-76). This belief may very well correspond to actual 

 facts, since there exists a statistically significant correlation between 

 urinary incontinence and neurotic fire setting (Michaels, 1955). This 

 fact should be noted, even though its psychoanalytic elucidation is 

 beyond the scope of the present work. 



Finally, there is at least a hint that the departing ghost of the 

 deceased seeks to seize the living. This is suggested by the belief 

 that all small whirlwinds, such as are often seen in the desert, 

 contain ghosts and that the small whirlwinds rising from beneath the 

 funeral pyre carry away the dead person's ghost — presumably to the 

 land of the dead. All these whirlwinds — but especially those arising 

 from beneath the pyre — are so greatly dreaded, that even elderly 

 Mohave nimbly jump out of the path of these tiny, funnel-shaped 

 whirling masses of dust or ashes. 



The motivation of funeral suicide provides an extraordinarily in- 

 teresting object lesson in the interplay of cultural, characterological, 

 and (temporary) conflictual determinants. 



Cultural factors in the motivation of funeral suicide are chiefly 

 related to Mohave eschatology. The soul of the deceased first lingers 

 for 4 days on earth, revisiting familiar places and persons, and then 

 proceeds to the land of the dead, where it recapitulates its life on 

 earth and dies a second time. Then, after undergoing three more 

 metamorphoses, it ceases to exist entirely. Hence, unless the mourner 

 dies soon after the demise of the beloved person, he runs the risk of 

 never again being able to catch up with the one who predeceased him. 



This danger has a great deal of motivating force for the Mohave. 

 (Devereux, 1937 a.) The only ones who can temporarily neutralize 

 this risk are witches, who segregate the souls of their victims in a 

 place of their own, until they, too, are ready to die. Then they join 

 their victims, lead them to the land of the dead and go through all 

 subsequent metamorphoses in their company (pt. 7, pp. 387-426) . The 

 unborn shaman achieves the same objective even more simply, by 



**> On this latter occasion the phallic god Pan — who mistook ( ?) burly Herakles for a 

 woman — actually tried to rape him in his sleep. 



