"Jab Molassie": When I was 8 years old, I experienced Jab Molassie. I was awakened to non-stop whistles in front of our home in Curepe, Trinidad. I peeked out the window and saw a band of Blue Mas players outside our gate shouting, “Pay the Devil.” I was really scared and hid inside. My mother saw that “I was ‘fraid” (Trinnie talk) so she gave me a handful of coins and said, “Throw the money for them.” They picked up all the coins, then moved over to the house next door. I was relieved! They leaped and pranced, smeared in blue paint and molasses, wearing wings, horns and wire tails while carrying pitchforks. They all had whistles in their mouths that dramatized their movements, and they threatened to smear spectators unless they paid them off. Their dancing and performance were accompanied by men beating empty biscuits and oil cans. They had metal chains around their waists, symbolizing the slave trade that finally ended in the 19 th century. The combination of molasses and soot on their faces and bodies is a reminder of the arduous toil of the slaves in the fields, cutting the sugar cane and heating it over large fires to extract the molasses. Jab is the French patois for Diable (Devil), and Molassie is the French patois for Mélasse (Molasses). This is known as a Devil Molasses Mas which is played annually in the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
