The yochĩ are the malevolent counterparts of the yové: shades and doubles, human or animal in form but stripped of adornment, kinship and society. Where the yové are immortal and healthy, the yochĩ are predatory and disordered, aggregating out of the mutilated remains of the dead to prowl the Death-Earth in search of the souls of the living. They are the agents of sickness and misfortune, and the antagonists whom the shaman confronts, names and drives off in the curing chants.