544 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



(/) In the winter of 1937 my interpreter informed me by mail that Hivsu: 

 Tupo : ma had become intoxicated, spent a cold night sleeping outdoors, and 

 died of pneumonia resulting from this exposure. 



Comment 



Self-destructive mechanisms are obvious in incidents (&), (e), and (/). Inci- 

 dent (e) closely resembles the suicidal confession of the lesbian witch 

 Sahaykwisa:, which caused her lovers to drown her (Case 140). Incident (/) 

 was obviously the culmination of a long quest for death by violence, which 

 nowadays is seldom meted out to shamans who also practice witchcraft (pt. 7, 

 pp. 387-426). The self-destructive use of alcohol by an incestuous witch throws 

 into sharp relief the psychological significance of Tcatc's "accidental" pairing 

 of incest and drunkenness in her condemnation of the present generation. 



By contrast, incidents (a), (&), and {d) illustrate the fundamentally kindly 

 and courteous disposition of my old friend Hivsu : Tupo : ma, as well as certain 

 important aspects of Mohave ethics and etiquette. 



In brief, it may be stated tentatively that the oral sadistic element 

 in shamanism (and especially in witchcraft), the psychodynamics of 

 the fellatio pattern in Mohave society, and the self-destructive con- 

 fessions of witches, as well as the close nexus between oral eroticism, 

 witchcraft, and incest, tend to support Freud's interpretations of the 

 oral-erotic aspect of alcohol addiction. Within certain limits, Berg- 

 ler's (1944, 1946) analysis of the role of the "oral triad" in alcohol 

 addiction is also supported by some of our Mohave data. 



A more detailed inquiry into the nexus between orality and witch- 

 craft is obviously beyond the scope of the present study. The above 

 considerations do reveal, however, certain important implications of 

 Mohave alcoholism. It is apparent, first of all, that alcohol tends to 

 be equated with milk, which, in turn, is equated with saliva and semen 

 (Devereux, 1947 a). Thus, alcohol appears to be unconsciously en- 

 dowed with some of the properties of these prototypal "magic" sub- 

 stances. It is, therefore, interesting to mention in this context that, 

 according to Mohave belief, magic substances are highly dangerous to 

 the uninitiated — and even to the initiated, since they eventually get 

 "out of hand" and injure or destroy their owner (pt. 4, pp. 202-212) . 

 The same is true of shamanistic powers, which often get out of hand 

 (Kroeber, 1925 a) and cause the shaman to become a witch, who, in 

 the end, seeks to be killed, in order to remain the leader and owner 

 of his beloved ghostly victims,. Since it has been shown above that 

 there are good reasons for assuming that tlie beloved dead tend to 

 be introjected, and even incorporated, it may be assumed, at least 

 tentatively, that, in som.e remote and probably unconscious manner, 

 alcohol, too, is equated with the dead. This last interpretation is, 

 however, quite explicitly a highly tentative hypothesis, whose verifica- 

 tion must remain in abeyance until further data can be obtained. 



