COW BAND
COSTUMES OF CARNIVAL
A documentary series by Carlisle Chang in
collaboration with Andrew Carr, who wrote the text, and Patrick Jones.
The Cow Band is one of the very old bands in the Trinidad Carnival
dating back as it does from the days of Camboulay, which went out of existence
in 1881-1881. In those faraway days,
over three-quarters of a century ago, there also flourished the
"Pis-en-lit," (men dressed in women's nightgowns) which has long since
been suppressed by the police under special proclamation.
The
Cow Band of those days consisted of a small band of about a dozen men dressed
in full length gowns of sacking made from rice bags or the light-weight sacking
which was used for wrapping bales of imported cloth. These gowns were completely covered with dried plantain (banana)
leaves. Each masquerader wore a
homemade papier-mâché mask representing the head of a cow surmounted by a pair
of horns.
The
band had no music but they had a great deal of fun charging among spectators
with make-believe ferocity. As they
darted from place to place on the streets, the gowns, which trailed a bit
behind, gave off a rustling sound. It
is very likely that this type of costume ensemble is African in concept. Geoffrey Gorer in his "Africa Dances,"
depicts several near types with horned masks, more usually antelope.
However,
the "Janelle," a matador-like character, uncostumed in short trousers
and sporting a red flag, rushed among the cows pretending to infuriate
them. Another, manipulating a lasso,
made playful attempts at capturing them.
After
an absence of some years this type of masquerade was taken up by men of the
city abattoir and this early form of the Cow Band became part of the "old
mask" feature of the Monday carnival's "Jour Ouvert.
On
the second and final day of Carnival (Tuesday), the Cow Band of the later
period came out in brightly coloured costumes, with picadors and a matador with
cape challenging the cows. It was,
customary for such a band to have about 6 cows, a matador, and about 12 picadors
on horseback in a band of about 40 to 50 persons, the majority comprising
singers, both male and female, led by a "chantuelle," and musicians.
The
picadors and the matador were dressed in the traditional style of these
professionals. But, it was the cows,
which provided the centre of attraction, primarily because of their incessant
movement and charges. The cow character
wore tight-fitting breeches of yellow velvet or satin with gold braid and
spangles along the sides and around the bottom end at the knees. His tight-fitting maroon satin long-sleeved
blouse was completely covered with a "sutach" decoration of gold
braid. He wore gloves, cream stockings
and alpagatas. A well-secured cap-like
contraption on the head supported a pair of highly polished cow horns. A short section of the hairy part of the
cow's tail was attached to the seat of the breeches. An imported wire gauze mask replaced the cow mask of the previous
day. Sometimes, there was a white cow
and a cream-coloured one for the effect of colour variety.
Male
singers and the musicians wore yellow breeches, maroon shirts with billowing
sleeves tight at the wrist, a sash around the waist and red beret. The women wore yellow shirts, red or maroon
bodices and headties. All wore masks of
the wire gauze type, those of the women being decorated with gold braid along
the forehead and at the sides, with gaudy earrings dangling from them.
Music
was provided by such string instruments as the mandolin, teeplay, bandol,
banjo, cuatro, guitar and violin. Chac-chacs
(maracas) were also used. This type of
music in a modified from can still be heard in some rural areas in Trinidad
with Spanish cultural retentions.
The
Cow Band went out of existence shortly before World War I (1914-1918) but
old-timers remember these characters, especially the cows, as providing a great
deal of excitement on the streets. Said
an old masquerader: "They were very wild; people used to be afraid of
them, and would get out of their way."