Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, December 29, 1998

Le courir de Mardi Gras is musical, muddy celebration

by Jim Bradshaw

Music and Mardi Gras go hand-in-hand in the bayou country, when masked riders "run" horseback through the countryside, accompanied by spirits and spirited music, to gather the fixings for a gumbo to be served at a communal fair-dodo on Mardi Gras night.

Folklorist Harry Osier described a typical courier de Mardi Gras in the area around Mamou.

By 5 a.m., come Mardi Gras morning, every rider has saddled and bridled his horse and had a few drinks at the neighborhood bar where the maskers assemble. The captain "frisks" all the riders to make sure none of them has guns or knives. As the sun is coming up, the captain blows his primitive trumpet, a "corne à vache" (cow's horn), and "la course des Mardi Gras" is on its boisterous way to visit farmhouses all around the town, which is the hub (le moyeu) of their circular route. Neither weather nor treacherous, slippery, and muddy dirt roads stop them, and since Shrove Tuesday generally comes around the end of February, many a masker shivers with cold until he has been warmed by frequent swigs of straight bourbon. To protect themselves further from the cold, they wear one-piece suits which are large enough to cover several layers of clothing. The "paillasse" or clown, nicknamed after a straw mattress, is stuffed with pillows or cotton until he resembles a ball . Like the jester of the Middle Ages, he has the duty of entertaining with his comic antics and acrobatics. It is not unusual to see him climb a tree, stand on his head, or come riding up on a decrepit mule or donkey. When the "capitaine" sees a farmhouse he thinks suitable, he rides up to it and asks the master and mistress if they will receive his followers. If they are willing, he waves his white flag, and the maskers come dancing into the yard, singing the weird Mardi Gras song, begging for food for the evening gumbo. Seizing the people of the house by the arms, they sweep them into a wild dance. The master and mistress usually oblige with rice or a big fat chicken, which the tipsy maskers have to pursue through the gumbo mud -- a wild and hilariously funny chase. At a signal from the captain, his lieutenant blows a blast, and the maskers mount their horses to resume their trip.