Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 483 



9 years of age. Parents : Mother living. Father died 15 years earlier. Educa- 

 tion : Indian Agency School, Fort Mohave. Fairly well educated. Occupation : 

 Santa Fe Railroad shops. Date of death: 1916 (?), around midnight. Cause 

 of death : Suicide. Shot himself in the head with a .32 caliber revolver. Motive : 

 Wife was promiscuous, even with racial aliens. 



Name of wife: Hilna Tumak. Gens: None. Race: Mother, Mohave; father. 

 White. Sex: Female. Age: 20. Marital status: Married. Children : Allegedly 

 a (step?) son, 9 (sic!) years of age. Parents: No data recorded. Occupation: 

 Housewife. Comment: Illegitimate, gensless, halfbreed daughter of a woman 

 described as a thinyeak hiko-nyentc (i.e., woman whites-copulate-with ; woman 

 copulates with whites.) 



Hilna Tumak married Atceyer Tcuva :u when she was about 18 or 19 years 

 of age. He was an industrious man, who worked in the Santa Fe Railroad 

 roundhouse at Needles. Husband and wife got along well with each other. "I 

 know this to be a fact, having lived with them for a year." Hilna Tumak was, 

 however, very promiscuous, not merely with Mohave men, but also with Ameri- 

 cans and Mexicans, in fact, according to Hama : Utce :, "with anyone who would 

 have intercourse with her." Although Hivsu : Tupo :ma denied it, he too may 

 have been one of Hilna Tumak's lovers. Sometime after Hivsu : Tupo :ma 

 returned to Parker, he heard that Atceyer Tcuva :u had become aware of Hilna 

 Tumak's infidelities, and had even caught her several times with certain 

 Mexicans. One day, after catching her again in the act, he decided that the 

 situation had become intolerable. He went home and stopped en route for a 

 drink. When he reached his home he said to his mother-in-law : "Your daughter 

 misbehaves. I knew it. I never complained. But this is the end. I shall kill 

 myself." ' He then went into his house and, around midnight, killed himself by 

 shooting himself in the head with a .32 caliber revolver. 



Atceyer Tcuva :u was cremated next day at noon and his relatives felt so 

 bitter toward Hilna Tumak that, 1 month latei', they hired a shaman to bewitch 

 her. When, as a result of witchcraft, she became ill, she ignored the admoni- 

 tions of the shamans who treated her, and did not confess the bewitcher's name, 

 even though she knew that nothing else could save her. "She could not utter 

 the name of the witch because he had sealed her lips" (Devereux, 1937 c). 

 Finally, they brought Hilna Tumak to Parker, where she lingered on for several 

 months. A shaman specializing in the cure of witchcraft, as well as other 

 shamans, tried to cure her, but without success. One of them, called Masahay 

 Lyiva :u (i.e., girl stand-in), treated her at informant's house, but could not 

 help her either. "She simply suffered from witchcraft. She had pains in her 

 left side, under the arm, although there was neither a sore nor a swelling. The 

 pain was just waiting to go to her heart." (Hama : Utce remarked, "I think that 

 her conscience hurt her.") She died 2 months after her husband's death, and 

 was cremated. 



She left a son, allegedly "9 or 10 years old" (which seems improbable, since 

 she herself was said to have been only 20 years old) who was brought up by 

 relatives. This son is now a grown man, and lives alternately with two sisters, 

 being married now to one, and now to the other of the two. 



Comment 



The above suicide was ultimately due to the average Mohave man's reluctance 

 to behave aggressively toward his unfaithful wife and her lovers. As regards 

 the lovers, the fact that they were Mexicans presumably increased the odious- 



^ The choppy style of the translation suggests that he uttered these remarks In the 

 so-called "preaching" (1. e., formal, or ritual narrative) style. 



