Definitions according to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:

Hash: n (1662) 1: chopped food; specif : chopped meat mixed with potatoes and browned 2 : a restatement of something that is already known 3 a : HODGEPODGE, JUMBLE b : a confused muddle

House: n 7 a : a place of business or entertainment b (1) : a business organization (2) : a gambling establishment c : an audience in a theater or concert hall

Harrier: n (1542) 1 : a hunting dog that resembles a small foxhound and is used especially for hunting rabbits 2 : a runner on a cross country team

The Hash House Harriers are known worldwide as the drinking club with a running problem. If you have lived in Caracas for any length of time, you may have seen or heard us on a Sunday afternoon. We are the jumbled hodgepodge of people standing around outside your apartment building in our running clothes, some of them matching. After a bugle call, you may have seen us running or walking while shouting such things as "On-on!" or "Checking" or "Are You?" provided amusing entertainment for the locals. If you've ever wondered who we are or what we were chasing, this is the article you have been waiting for.

Hash History

The history of the Hash House Harriers is as difficult to track down as the correct trail at a check. Reports agree that the Hash House Harriers were founded in Kuala Lumpur in 1938 by an Australian, A. S. Gispert, who was stationed there as an officer. At that time, Gispert gathered together a group of bored British and Australian colonial officers who wanted to sweat off the weekend's excesses through a Monday night running club. To add excitement to the exercise, the men modeled their runs after the English children's game "Hares and Hounds." Before a hash run, the club member who devised the route, called the hare, used flour or paper to leave a trail , (usually through the rubber plantations). The trail was followed by the other members, called the 'hounds' and who have come to be known as 'the pack', 'hashers', 'harriers', 'FRB's' or 'SCB's' depended on the context and the country.

Here, the legends diverge. Some say that after their run, the original pack would retire to the Selangor Club, a local restaurant, for a big meal. Others say that the Selangor Club was the site of the weekend excesses and that post-run meals were held at a local curry restaurant. Still others claim that the restaurant frequented was an annex to the Selangor Club. In any case, as the membership grew, the group came to be known as the Hash House Harriers and the eating establishment as the Hash House. The owner of the eatery began to meet the runners at their halfway point with tubs of cold beer. Soon the post-run dinner became a party at which new members were initiated with ribald songs and limericks and terrible nicknames were given to regular participants. The original intent of drying out from the weekend was completely lost in the fun.

As the soldiers were transferred around the British Empire, they took the tradition of hashing with them. There are now an estimated 900 chapters and 100,000 hashers worldwide. Today the post-run ceremony is called a 'circle' or 'on-on' and it is presided over by the clubÕs GM (grand master for a man, grand mattress for a woman) and Religious Advisor. It is at this ceremony that new hashers are initiated, new shoes are christened, hash handles are bestowed and penalties for infractions, such as shortcutting and latecoming, are meted out. After the circle, many clubs retire to a local restaurant or hash pub for a meal called the "on-on-on."

Hash How-to

Hashes are still set in flour although, in poorer countries such as India, where it would be insensitive to waste food, shredded paper shows the way. Hashes held in the snow rely on the use of red or green lentils. Rain is a problem that has yet to be solved. (The Religious Advisor is generally chastised with a down-down when he fails to produce good weather on run days.) Some hashes mark with flour blobs while others uses lines or arrows. Attaching a can to a pole and making holes in the bottom of the can in the shape of an arrow or the hash logo is an ingenious way to mark the trail easily. This was introduced to the Caracas Hash by a hashing family, La-Ina, Fat Boy Porteno and Rocky. The can is filled with flour and a light tap of the can on the ground leaves a legibly formed indicator of the trail.

Circles on the trail are usually used to indicate that the runners must search to find the correct path. This is called a 'check' and it is one of the means at the disposal of the hares to promote teamwork and to keep the group together. At a check, hashers will shout, "Are you?" to those ahead when they come upon such a mark. The standard reply is, "Checking!" which means, "I don't really know if this is the right way, but I'm hoping it is." In the Caracas hash, we know that three marks indicates a correct choice so when we see the first mark after a check, we shout "On-One", at the second mark we shout, "On-Two" and at the blessed third mark, we shout a joyous, "On-On-On-On-On." (Those who encounter an X, signifying a 'falsie', say something unprintable in this space, generally followed by the cry, "Hang the hares!") With any luck, once the trail has been discovered, someone standing near the check will 'mark through it' (use the flour to make an arrow indicating the correct direction) so that the back of the pack will be able catch up without rechecking.

There are other differences in the styles of hashing. Some hashes set only 'live-hare' runs in which the hare is given a 15 minute head start and sets the trail as the pack follows trying to literally catch him. Elsewhere, like Caracas, two trails are preset, a shorter one for the 'walkers' and a longer one for the runners. In places like Istanbul, only one trail is set but every check is a 'holding check' and the pack must wait there for every runner before 'checking it out.' The ensuing time is spent singing a hash song like "Father Abraham" or, in appropriate weather, "Singing in the Rain." Some family hashes have a tradition of 'hash horrors' which is a run in which a child must always be the front runner and the children must do all of the 'checking.' Other hashes are men- or women-only and some cities support several hashes. Hashes will take any opportunity to plan a special hash - full moon, Boxing Day, New Year's Recovery. One international hasher, 'Periodical' of the West London hash, scheduled his business trips in such a way as to run on 50 different hashes in one year.