Travelling coffin

“Rum Jamaican Tales” [ FT400:17] reminded me of one of my favourite strange phenomena. Several Internet sources say it occurred in the “late 1970s” (see https://jamaicans.com/truestory/ or http://jamaica-gleaner. com/gleaner/20110526/cleisure/ cleisure4.html), obviously incorrect for a reason I mention below. Basically, there was a rumour that a three-wheeled coffin containing a duppy (ghost) was travelling around the island, being led, or driven, by three John Crow birds (buzzards) or two, or four, depending on your source. One of the birds was able to talk and asked for “Mr Brown” before moving on, leaving pandemonium in its wake. It created near rioting in Parade in Kingston where some witnesses also mentioned they had seen the coffin going up the steps into the courthouse.

The reason we can be sure it was either very late 1960s or most likely 1970 is because Bob Marley sings about it in the Bob Marley & The Wailers’ song “Mr Brown”, recorded in Randy’s Studio in Kingston in 1970 and produced by Lee Perry, who released it on his Upsetter label in 1971. That much is indisputable.

The lyrics include lines such as: “Mr Brown is a clown who rides through town in a coffin”

“In the coffin where there is / Three crows on top and two is laughing”

“From Mandeville to Sligoville, coffin running around / Upsetting, upsetting, upsetting the town, asking for Mr Brown”

“Down in Parade, people running like a masquerade” and

“What a thing in town, Crows chauffeur-driven around”.

The song has been reissued many times over the years; it can also be found at: www.youtube. com/watch?v=amGI5T0JGDc. Norman Darwen

Lostock, Bolton, Lancashire