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The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions
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‘The acting out of Bible stories and the signs and emblems and all that are rather like mystery plays,’ points out an historically-minded Blackman. ‘They helped illiterate people like many of our early members to remember scriptural truths. When properly performed by a good lecturer, these stories and truths can leave an imprint. And the tradition remains a good one. Many of our people are not book-minded, but they like and can relate to imagery.’
The role of the lecturer is crucial. They are part of an oral tradition: they explain the stories, teach degree candidates their responses and play a crucial part in the ceremonies. It is because they believe that the degree system helps people lead a better life, that so many of them give up an enormous amount of their time to pass on the oral tradition to their brethren.
Read with imagination (and with the information on Arch Purple and Black emblems given in the next chapter), ‘The Black Man’s Dream’, a song written around 1795, gives a good indication of what is involved in the ‘travel’.
One night I thought a vision brought
Me to a spacious plain,
Whereon its centre stood a mount,
Whose top I wished to gain;
Orange, blue, and purple, too,
Were given me to wear,
And for to see the mystery
They did me thus prepare.
My guide a pack placed on my back –
With pillars of an arch –
A staff and scrip placed in my hand,
And thus I on did march;
Through desert lands I travelled o’er,
And the narrow road I trod,
Till something did obstruct my path
In the form of a toad.
So then I saw what did me awe,
Though wandering in a dream
A flaming bush, though unconsumed,
Before me did remain;
And as I stood out of the wood
I heard a heavenly sound,
Which made me cast my shoes away,
For it was holy ground.
Two men I saw, with weapons keen,
Which did me sore annoy –
Unto a pyramid I ran
That standing was hard by;
And as I climbed the narrow way,
A hand I there did see,
Which layed the lofty mountains
In the scale of equity.
Blue, gold, and black about my neck,
This apparition placed –
Into a chariot I was put,
Where we drove off in haste:
Twelve dazzling lights of beauty bright
Were brought to guide my way,
And as we drove thro’ cypress shades
One of them did decay.
Near to a mount I saw a fount
Of living water flow;
I being dry, they did reply,
To drink you there may go;
The mystic cup I then took up,
And drank a health to all
That were born free and kept their knee