HRDLicKA] PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 171 



indidcreiice. In the Ixini<|uilpaii district the proportion of hoiui- 

 cidcs among the Otoini is even greater than among tliose of the Tula 

 district.** 



Suicide 



Suicides occur among most of the tribes visited, l)ut on the whole 

 they are rare, especially among the women. 



No instance of death by suicide was learned of among the South- 

 ern Ute.'' 



Among the White Mountain Apache one or more cases of self- 

 destruction occur every year. The means vary. Some individuals 

 accomplish their purpose by means of a knife, others with a rope, gun, 

 or poison, and some jump from a cliff. The main cause of self- 

 destruction is despondency, or, as the Apache expressed it, "his 

 people would not give him anything in his need;" "all her relatives 

 dying, she would die also," etc. A man may kill himself when his 

 wife dies, or a wife may take her own life when her children die, 

 and sometimes suicide occurs during intoxication. 



On the San Carlos reservation suicide is rare. Only two definite 

 instances could be learned of by the wTiter. In one three men prison- 

 ers who were to be hanged the next day strangled themselves in the 

 prison by tying cords about their necks, while the second case, which 

 occurred about ten years ago, was that of an old woman who had an 

 altercation with her daughter and in the following night strangled 

 herself with a rope. 



Among the Jicarillas suicide is infrequent. A man shot himself 

 after having accidentally inflicted a wound from which he was threat- 

 ened with slowly bleeding to death. 



Among the Navaho rare instances of suicide occur from destitu- 

 tion, despondency, or drink. 



Among the Papago suicide is seldom heard of. The means are 

 stabbing, shooting, and hanging. 



Among the Pima suicide is rare. During his life Chief Antonio saw 

 three such instances himself and heard of several others. All of 

 these were men, and all shot themselves. 



No recent case could be learned of among either the Mohave, Yuma, 

 or Zuni. 



Among the Tarahumare occasionally a despondent individual ends 

 his life by hanging. 



a In many of the less civilized tribes there are other forms of native punishment for crime besides 

 that of death, which seem to be reserved only for those believed guilty of witchcraft. The most 

 common punishment (Yuma, Tepehuane, Tepecano, Huichol, etc.! is castigation; another is 

 incarceration with, or more often without, food and drink. Among the Huichol, in addition to all 

 the above punishments, is found that of confining one foot of the criminal in a heavy perforated plank 

 or log. The punishment is apparently meted out to both sexes alike. 



bOn June 30, 1904, the agent of the tribe reports " one suicide . . . the first one known among the 

 Southern Utes." Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1904, 174. 



