480 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



at least, viewed it unconsciously as a retribution for Nyail Kwaki :yo's unfilial 

 behavior." 



CASE 124 (Informants : Hivsu : Tupo :ma and Hama : Utee :) : 



Name : Kwali :. Gens : Nyoltc. Race : FuUblood Mohave. Sex : Male. Age 

 at death : According to Hivsu : Tupo :ma, 45 ; according to others, "old." 

 Marital status : Presumably single. Children : None. Parents : Dead. Rela- 

 tives: None. Education: None. Occupation: Formerly a laborer. Date of 

 death: 1924 (?). Cause of death: Suicide by hanging. Motive: 111 and lonely. 

 Psychiatric status: Chronic alcoholic. Medical status: He had an incurable 

 cancer of the rectiun, mistakenly believed by the Mohave to be due to hiku :pk, 

 i.e., syphilis. 



Kwali : had originally worked at Blythe, but, toward the end of his life, lived 

 at Needles. He was a lonely man, having no relatives, and only a few friends, 

 one of whom sheltered him in his home. One evening his hosts went to town 

 to sell some Indian beadwork and other knickknacks, leaving Kwali : at home. 

 Between 8 :00 and 9 :00 p.m., the lonely man slung a rope over a beam in the 

 house and hanged himself. The beam was so low that he actually had to let his 

 body sag in order to kill himself, a fact which may explain certain rumors that 

 he had not committed suicide, but had been murdered. However, all competent 

 informants disbelieved these allegations, and no one was prosecuted for murder. 



Comment 



The informants' denials of these rumors seem credible for five reasons : 



(1) The only person who mentioned this gossip was a sincere but usually not 

 too well informed person, who, for various reasons, could not have possessed 

 any "inside" information about this case. 



(2) A seemingly aimless murder of this type is entirely out of keeping with 

 basic Mohave behavior patterns. 



(3) Tested and proved informants, who never held back information of any 

 kind, however damaging to anyone, flatly denied that there was any basis to 

 this rumor. 



(4) No one was even accused of having neglected or abused this ill and lonely 

 old man. 



(5) Cases of suicide by hanging oneself from a low point of suspension are 

 less rare than one might think,' and may be a reflection of an unconsciously 

 spiteful need to die as dramatically as possible, so as to make the survivors 

 feel doubly guilty. On the other hand, a suicide by this means also gives the 

 subject a chance to save his life, up to the very last minute. The fact that 

 Kwali: failed to do so, and showed so much resoluteness, only increased the 

 "awf ulness" of his death and the guilt feelings of the survivors. 



The fact that this ailing old man, who, though lacking relatives, was ade- 

 quately cared for by friends, committed suicide may indicate the importance of 

 having blood kin, and a primitive, culturally conditioned, inability to accept 

 loyal friends as adequate substitutes for relatives. This view is supported 

 also by the suicide of Nyortc, who was lovingly cared for by her old friend 



^ Compare in support of this view, Hama : Utee :'s spontaneous remarlc that the 

 illness of Flilna Tiimak, who drove her husband to suicide (Case 127), was not due to 

 witclicraft but to pangs of conscience. 



* Thus, while doing fieldwork In Indochina, I learned from official sources that a French 

 civil servant had killed himself by hanging himself from so low a point of suspension that 

 he actually died in a quasi-sitting position, with his buttocks almost touching the 

 ground. 



