jab molassi

English

Noun

jab molassi (plural jab molassi)

1. Alternative spelling of jab molassie.
   • 1972, Errol Hill, The Trinidad Carnival: Mandate for a National Theatre, Austin, Tx., London: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 109, column 1:

     A second masquerade character used in the play was the Jab Molassi, or molasses devil. At carnival he is the leaping, prancing masker, his body daubed with black or blue paint, sometimes with molasses, who threatens to besmear spectators unless they pay him off.

   • 2004, Carlisle Chang, “Chinese in Trinidad Carnival”, in Mill Cozart Riggio, editor, Carnival: Culture in Action – The Trinidad Experience (Worlds of Performance), New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Emancipation, Ethnicity, and Identity in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival – from the Nineteenth Century to the Present), page 86:

     From these hills at carnival time the traditional mummers descended into the city – Moko Jumbies on stilts, Warrahouns speaking Amerindian tongues, Pierrot Grenade in rags, Jab Jabs with whips, Jab-Molassi painted blue – moving to the beat of African drums or tambour-bamboo.