Jab Jab, whip-cracking, mirrored
mass decorated with red and green satin skirts, mauve moiré taffeta and orange
stockings, is the father of the Dragon Band or Devil Band. This metamorphosis
commenced in 1906, when Patrick Jones assisted by Gilbert Scamaroni prompted by
a sacred picture, illustrating the exorcising of the devil from a sick person,
displayed in a shop at what is now 65 Queen Street, prompted the organising of
the first Dragon mas. Khaki and slate were the colours chosen, cow horns and
rope tails were used. They wore flexible wings that flapped. The band was
comprised of about 70 or 80 men and women, who carried long forks. There were
presidents with even more elaborate costumes, covered with brass buttons and
gold fringe, diamante spangles and gold cord. Everyone wore small face masks.
There was one central character called Lucifer who wore a golden crown and was
even more elaborately costumed. He was portrayed by Gilbert Scamaroni who used
a large head mask imported from Germany by the firm Waterman Brothers of
Frederick Street. Between 1906 and 1909, cowtails held upright by wire were
added. In 1909, Patrick Jones, along with 'Skeedo' Phillips and the Valere brought
out the "Red Devil Band". Patrick Jones was a man who loved to read
and was able to put his hands on to an illustrated copy of Dante's Inferno, and
as a result was able to add a host of diabolical characters to his already
charming retinue from hell.
In 1910, Jones brought out a band
called "Demonites" and introduced the character of Beelzebub, Lord of
the Flies. He was enclosed in an iron cage and bound by nine chains. Beelzebub
was made of papier mache. Fearsome in character, the entire contraption was
carried aloft on poles. In 1911, Satan was introduced. His costume was similar
to Lucifer's and Beelzebub's, but he carried a book and a pen in which to
record sins. This was the year in which the Beast appeared for the first time,
and it was portrayed by a man called "Georgie". This costume of the
Beast was made of large fish scales and so constructed that they could bustle
up or be made to lie flat.
Professor Gordon Rohlehr tells us
a lot about Patrick Jones in his book "Calypso and Society". Jones,
he says, was one of the earliest devotees to serious masquerades in the early
20th century. he was a pyrotechnicist and a calypsonian. Known as Chinee
Patrick, he was "hakwi", that is, half Chinese and half African. As a
calypsonian, he sang under the name Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, and
his songs were in the tradition of Atilla the Hun and Lord Executor. He was a
powerful calypsonian, so much so that his challenges were often hardly taken up
by even the most significant aficionados of the art.
His daring to put the devil and
his hordes from hell on the streets of Port of Spain created an enormous impact
on the city, its institutions and citizens and on the calypsoes of the time,
and was to be retained in memory and folklore, still imitated, albeit poorly,
to this day.
Bruce Procope, from whose paper
most of this valuable information has been gleaned, points out that by 1911 the
main features of the Dragon Band were already established and were to survive
more or less intact for another fifty years. Fresh characters emerged, such as
the devil as "gentlemen Jim", who, together with his devil mask, wore
a tail coat and carried a stick, behaving in a courtly manner with much bowing
and kissing of hands.
Various theories have been
brought forward concerning the devil band. Procope writes:
"The theory is that the
dragon band is an ambulatory depiction of Satan and his horde cast from heaven ...
he and his followers return to earth on the two days before the Lenten season
commences in order to try the virtue of the faithful."
The people who played this mas
had no reluctance in playing the devil and the forces of evil, although many
felt a great excitement, even fear, to be associated with it. By the 1930s,
Patrick Jones' band was big, some 200 or 300 people. The devil mas generated
mixed feelings. As there was much delving into occult literature, looking for
information to enhance the portrayals. Such books as "Hope and the
Race" by Frank Patterson and the "Chronicles of Leviathan", an
anonymous work, were consulted. This was a time when, not only in Trinidad,
there was a great interest in the esoteric. Dealing with the devil in exchange
for souls was a minor industry amongst both the unscrupulous and the foolish.
The fact that it was frowned upon by the religious was sufficient to make it
desirable. Others followed Jones' idea. Devil bands had tents, bamboo and carat
affairs, where members met to build their mas and to practice their 'pass' or
dance steps, and its 'chantwell' to compose songs. The Dragon's head was built
in secrecy, so that when it appeared, it would astound even the band members.
The green Beast would have a
movable tongue with an iron band around the waist attached to three or four
iron chains, held in different directions to control the progress of the
character. The dance of the Beast consists of a lunging movement as it strikes
out attempting to bring down the horde of surrounding red imps, who would
constantly goad him, sometimes there would be several Beasts in a band with one
being the chief Beast.
There would be a king imp in red
tights, mask, wings, a tail, attended by other imps who would carry axes,
scrolls, horns, bells, dice, face cards and scales with weights. The showing of
the face card was vital for the water crossing. One authority affirmed that
there should be 42 characters in a devil band, some of these would be a gown
man, expensively dressed with a mask imported from Europe, a Queen Patroness
with her court, Lilith, Eve's mother, a Bookman with a large book and an imp to
carry it. The character of Beelzebub would have a host of blue flies, sexy
girls, buzzing about. All this produced an amazing sight, with the imps
taunting the Beasts and dancing away with highly complicated steps, as other
imps would dance, twirl and skip, maintaining a constant activity and providing
interesting contrast with the noble mien and stately bowing of the Satanic
characters.
Long ago, the fight of the Beast
was a feature of Carnival. The corner of Duke and Frederick Streets, midday
Carnival Tuesday: the great Beast Zatog the Invincible met and destroyed Azoth,
Keeper of the Inferno. This challenge to combat occurred automatically when two
devil bands met. Bruce Procope recalls:
"The combat took the form of
the execution by the reigning Beast of various dance steps, which the challenger
had to imitate. If he succeeded, he then had to demonstrate his own for the
reigning monster to imitate. The one who failed was dishonoured. To be the
reigning Beast was considered the highest honour."
"Mr. Jones says that the
Dragon or Beast was suggested to him by a picture of St. Mark and the Beast
which he saw at Laventille church," writes Procope. "Another of our
informants, Mr. William La Borde (alias Willie the Beast) also remembers
Georgie. Georgie was the reigning Beast from whom Willie captured the crown.
The step that brought him victory was one which was shown to him in a dream.
One night after practice at the tent of his band, Willie went home to sleep. He
dreamt that a man came to him dressed in a top hat and tail coat. The man
suddenly turned into a zandolie and started to wriggle on the ground. Willie
awoke, told his wife about the dream and immediately began to practice a step
in imitation of the movements of the zandolie. He perfected this dance and by
it won the crown from Georgie."
With regard to the crossing of
the water, Procope recounts the "coming out" or the
"invocation", which takes place as the band is coming from the place
where it has assembled onto the streets to parade. Led by the King Imp and his
sexy quick-stepping horde, the music band blasting live music on their feet in
the road. they would burst upon the streets, the Beast itself, green-scaled
with its clawed dragon's feet straining at the chains held by the musclemen,
barely able to contain it. As the Beast approaches the first drain, the King
Imp or "tempter" steps forward, confronts him, and rings a big brass
bell. He shows him a face card to bring him to a halt. The imps, in blazing
red, their wings quivering, sequins sparkling in the noonday sun, show their
"pass" and perform their play with cutesy antics and much teasing of the
Beast.
The Beast, head rearing, claws
slashing the air, attempts the crossing, feigning fear lest any part of his
person should touch the water flowing in the street's canal. With the Beast
"over the water" other characters blaze out, bats temporarily
traveling with the band, big with black huge wings; zombies, a section of
jumbies in black and red. Two robbers also moving with the ban enter Piccadilly
Street, glowing, pulsating with human energy, Lucifer last of all, elegant,
black satin cape lined in red velvet, dressed in the costume of a grand duke
with scarlet sashes and jeweled orders, and ceremonial sword in hand. Before
him, mincing and cringing, his court of sycophants. They mime a play that none
but they can understand. A coffin carries a man. A live black cat looks out
from the Queen's hair piece. They have real dwarves who are old men, seen
dragging chains to which are attached souls waiting to be reincarnated. The
performance of crossing the water is repeated. The teasing of the Beast
continues. Small boys run up with slapsticks to make him jump, and old women
throw pails of water before Lucifer to stop him - isn't that a tradition from
Catholic Ireland, throwing water before a hearse? But he just laughs hideously
and shows them a morocoy and two live frogs he has in a small black and gold
box.
The Beast makes a bolt for it,
catching the musclemen unawares - but don't worry, he's not going far - just
for a cold Carib from his nennen in the planning!
Some lyrics of the day relfect
the Red Devil Bands, but that was long ago. Now we are afraid of a weather
vane on top the Red House - the old iron dragon. They should put it back!
"I am a monarch from heart
and soul
Whenever I go I bound to control
I am guided by the three stars
Jupiter, Mercury and mars.
And if tonight I shall lose my
name
Blood is going to flow from every
vein
They call me Beginner the terror,
the brutal conqueror
Santimanite."
(Lord Beginner)
"Come into my den and there
you shall see
Skeletons and bones of your
family.
Your body shall be placed on a
mountain peak
And there you shall say your
prayers for a week
And after that dreadful pain you
shall meet a hurricane
Santimanite.
From the very first day that I
was born
Men like Houdini started to mourn
Monarchs wept and princes cried
When they saw this new star up in
the sky
Astronomers in my horoscope state
He'll be proud, grand,
illustrious and great
And they named me Atilla, the
terror, the brutal conqueror
Master Mi Minor."
(Atilla the Hun)
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