Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 467 



P. N. was "mean" to Oo:lva. (At this point Hama: Utce: remarked that: 

 "P. N. could make anyone feel like shooting him, he was that mean.") Oo: Iva 

 was "tired of the earth; he was not happy." Hence, one noon he shot himself 

 in the heart in a shed located near his house at Parker, Ariz. 



A year or so later his brother, Amalyk Tumadha : p, also killed himself (Case 

 113). 



Comment 



The preceding case exemplifies the Mohave tendency to react with suicide 

 when a person from whom one expects love and support disappoints one. Ac- 

 cording to the Mohave, this suicide was not motivated by the suicidal urge of 

 witches, since Oo : Iva was said to be exclusively a healing shaman. The fact 

 that he specialized in the cure of the deleterious effects of charms, which is 

 apparently a somewhat unusual "speciality," may be due to his being half 

 Yavapai — members of that tribe being believed to have power over some of 

 these "charms" (pt. 4, pp. 202-212). 



CASE 113 (Informants : Hivsu : Tupo :ma and Hama : Utce :) : 



Name : Amalyk Tumadha :p. Gens : Tcatc. Race : Father, Mohave ; Mother, 

 Yavapai. Sex: Male. Age at Death: 45. Marital status: (?) (probably 

 single). Children: (?). Parents : Not ascertained whether still alive. Educa- 

 tion: None. Occupation: Farmer. Date of Death: 1S03 (?). Cause of death: 

 Suicide. He shot himself with a .32 revolver, either in the heart, or, more 

 probably, in the forehead. Motive: He was brooding over the fact that his 

 brother Oo:lva had been driven to suicide a year before (Case 112). 



When Oo:lva (Case 112) killed himself, his brothei*, Amalyk Tumadha : p, 

 began to brood over it. He often spoke of his grief and of his distress over 

 having to live alone and being alone in the world. He intensely resented P. N., 

 whom he held responsible for Oo:lva's suicide. (For P. N.'s vital statistics, 

 who at this time was 51 years old, cf . Case 112. ) The fact that Oo : Iva's and 

 Amalyk Tumadha :p's mother, and P. N.'s mother were half sisters probably 

 aggravated the situation, since cousins are supposed to be good to each other. 



Amalyk Tumadha :p often spoke of this matter, saying darkly : "You just 

 watch and see what I am going to do." One night he attended a gambling 

 party at Parker. During the first part of the night he repeatedly said, "I 

 may be brave enough to kill someone first and myself afterwards, but if I am 

 not brave enough to do that, I will only kill myself." While waiting for P. N., 

 who failed to turn up at the party, Amalyk Tumadha :p kept on repeating : 

 "I do not like the way he talks. He is mean." Toward 4:00 a.m., weary of 

 waiting for P. N., he went to his host's hencoop and shot himself. 



It was not possible to ascertain whether anyone had warned P. N. to stay 

 away from the gambling party, because P. N. died some years after Amalyk 

 Tumadha : p committed suicide, and before 1936, when suicide was investigated 

 in the field. 



Oomment 



The preceding case history exemplifies the manner in which suicides tend 

 to cluster among the Mohave. The transition from frustrated and partly in- 

 hibited anger ("I may be brave enough to kill someone first and myself after- 

 wards, but if I am not brave enough to do that, I will only kill myself") to 

 suicide is also quite obvious. 



Amalyk Tumidha :p's suicide resembles that of his brother Oo :lva, in that 

 both killed themselves near an outlying building (shed, chicken coop), both 

 used revolvers, and — though there is some disagreement about this point — 

 both shot themselves in the heart. This suggests a considerable Identification 



