Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2006 - (Page 17) O Henry Roeland Byrd, popularly known as “Professor Longhair,” 1979 ON MARDI GRAS MORNING n Mardi Gras morning they assemble, going from member’s house to member’s house, or sometimes meeting at an assigned place, and they roam through the streets of the city, directed by the Big Chief and preceded by the Spy Boy, whose job it is to initiate contact with other gangs whose paths cross theirs. Once that happens, a large crowd usually forms as the two Big Chiefs address one another, approaching down a corridor formed by dozens or more people watching closely, shouting encouragement, and listening to the intricate, rhymed boasts with which the Chiefs test one another’s presence of mind and linguistic skill. They will usually brag about how “pretty” their own suits are, showing off in stylized and very precise gestures, each of which, like the patois in which they deliver their boasts, has a hermetic meaning understood only by the Indians themselves. Spring 2006/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 17
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