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Grenada Hashing by Michael DeFreitas Late one Saturday afternoon, below the forested slopes of Hospital Hill, above Grenada's capital of St. George's, I was setting up my tripod waiting for just the right light to capture the picturesque harbor when I heard it. At first, I was not sure what to make of the racket coming from the woods above me. It sounded like the commands a musher gives to his dogs, except to my knowledge, there were no dog sled teams in the Caribbean. On! On! On!, echoed on the gentle afternoon breeze, growing louder with each chorus. I figured it must be some kids chasing some poor animal through the bush and continued to compose my picture. All of a sudden there was a crashing of branches behind me and three crazed individuals broke from the undergrowth and dashed madly across Old Fort Road, disappearing into the dense forest on the other side. Startled my finger jammed down on the shutter release and the motor drive whirled off six shots. Just as my heart was beginning to recover, another motley group pounded by yelling "On! On! On!" I was beginning to think they were all crazed escapees from the insane asylum, when an attractive young women in shorts broke from the underbrush and asked if I saw which way the others went. Pointing in their general direction, I asked what was going on. She smiled and said "we're hashing." Later I would find out that the first group, called "hares" were actually being pursued by the second group, called "hounds." Who would have imagined that hashing was alive and well on Grenada, and that every second Saturday, the island's forested hillsides and valleys echo with the shrill desperate calls of On! On! On! Hashing is a kind of "hound and hare," or "paper chase" and the wild eyed hashers dashing through hill and dale are part of the "Hash House Harriers," a dedicated group of Grenadians and visitors devoted to keeping the art of hashing alive. Hashing groups, of about fifty, follow paper marked trails set down by hares, which utilize all kinds of tricks to keep the hashers at bay. Actually, the hares claim it's just their way of slowing down the group so they all reach the pub at the same time. Competitiveness is shunned upon and front-runners are usually called "FRBs," "front running bastards." Shiny new runners and pressed shorts are also frowned upon. Hashing originated in Malaysia sometime in the early 1930s. British senior officers invented the game to keep their men fit and burn off the excesses of weekend partying. Leaders or hares would mark a trail--and many false trails--through the dense jungle around Kuala Lumpur. The hares were then pursued by teams of "hounds" vying to reach the finish line first. As added incentive, there was cold beer waiting for the winning team at the finish line. The name Hash House Harriers was adopted in honor of their beloved Hash House pub, which of course sponsored many of the events. Not much has changed, but today, everyone wins and gets beer. Two weeks later, I was down at the Portofino Restaurant, in St. George's, waiting with about 60 other eager hashers. The leader or "Hasher Master" that day was Grenada's HHH founder and premiere hasher, Paul Slinger, who describes hashers as "drinkers with a running problem." After getting directions to the hash we piled into cars and headed to Grand Etang National Park, the starting point of that weeks hash.
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Content © Michael DeFreitas, 2002 - Copyright © CaribSeek 2002, All Rights Reserved. Web Published: May 10, 2002
