"For the Tohono O'odham (formerly known as the Papago) of southern Arizona, devils are the spirits of deceased O'odham cattlemen and cowboys. The arbiters of wealth and the protectors of horses and cattle, devils safeguard their property by inflicting their staying sickness on humans who mistreat or show disrespect for livestock. But devils also give humans the power to recover from devil sickness by teaching healing songs to shamans and ritual curers.".

"In this book David L. Kozak and David I. Lopez discuss O'odham devil way in the context of shamanic tradition, Catholic missionization, and the rise of the Southwest cattle economy, showing how it has been both a barometer of and a means of coping with several centuries of social upheaval.

They analyze the structure and sequence of thirty-nine curative devil songs, explaining how each song-set includes primary and secondary poetic tensions that effect a cure by enabling patients to relive their own experiences from the perspective of the spirit world."--BOOK JACKET.