Though it originated from Malaysia,
the running sports " hashing " is conceptually following the British
sports of fox / hare hunting. The British planters had introduced this concept while they were bored with their lives in the
evening of the early days when other entertainments were not available.
Firstly, a hare is selected to set paper strips for the running trail, symbolizing the scent and foot prints of the small animal, the hare, and the hashers following the trails, symbolizing the hounds, ferociously hunting for the prey, the hare. In such doing, they completed a specified distance of running.
A trail may be broken up for the purpose of holding back the pack, fast runners and slow runners inclusive and this is done by putting a false trial or a check. A false trail is an abrupt disappearance of paper strips, and a check is the appearance of a heap of paper strips with no continuing trail. The continuing trail could then be found around an area 100 meters away in all directions. Normally an average of 8 km is the total distance for a run. It is important that the hare cannot be caught by the hashers, and they have either to be well ahead of the pack whilst laying the paper strips or to hide at a corner after finishing the job - paper strips laying -.
After the run, a hash circle is always formed for the purpose of entertainment and fellowship. Jokes, humours, singing and
sitting on ice are the funs created. After that, most would adjourn at a specified restaurant for the food and the fun continued.
Ah! the beer, yes it is a very important beverage for the hashers. I do not know why the beer has anything to do with a serious sport like running, but the Mat Salleh in the early days introduced it. I assume probably water was not so clean in those days, and it was safer to drink beer and moreover it gave a kind of a " Umu " feeling after consumption of beer. Whatever it is, the decision makes the beer company very happy all these years.
The relationship between the beer and the hashers is so close such that the hashers and beer interpenetrate so to speak, the beer entering into the life of most hashers and the hashers knowing something or everything about the beer, in the way of amusement, of hashing or of fellowship.
That is why a hash club is also called a drinking club with a running problem, and I assume perhaps it is easier to train a drinker than a runner! On On!
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