a1549: Re: a1542: Inquiring on a January 1 festivity: Nekita asks and Corbett begins a reply (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haldor Noss <hbnoss@worldnet.att.net>

Greetings Nekita & Corbettland,
         I saw this game held at city festival occasions in the 1970's in
Francophone Cameroon.  The (telephone) pole was greased or oiled to make it
very slippery.  While it is fascinating for me to discover that this game
took place in both Cameroon and Haiti, I might also suggest that one common
denominator is the French Culture.  Has this game of climbing a slippery
pole been part of French festivals in Europe?
         From a Cameroon or Haitian perspective, the fingerprinting idea
sounds like a modern westerners idea.  Keeping fingerprints on file
somewhere to be used in a court case against a common thief (like the guy
who climbs through a window to steal change off a night stand) is highly
impractical and unlikely.  Furthermore, I have never seen or heard of
police in Cameroon or Haiti "dusting a crime scene for fingerprints."
Hal Noss