Hartley Neita

Legends are often based on fact. Sometimes, too, the line between both is thin.

In Jamaica, we have many legends. There is the legend of Martha Brae, and those associated with Nanny of the Maroons, and Three Finger Jack, the Soldier Stone, Lover's Leap, our Mermaids, Plato, Folly and others. These, together with the true stories of the women pirates, Admiral Lord Nelson, Coubah Cornwallis, Mary Seacole, Calico Jack, George Headley and Alexander Bedward add colour to the rich culture of our country.

Except for Suzanne Francis and Eddie Burke, and some dramatised audio recordings of these legends, I cannot think of other memorials of them. There is a marker on the St Thomas south coast road about Three Finger Jack, a plaque at the University of the West Indies about Mary Seacole, the portrait of Nanny on our $500 note, and the tombstone (the Soldier Stone) to mark the site of the death of the soldier in Westmoreland. But there is very little else.

I seem to recall a plaque recounting the legend of the slave who discovered either the Milk River or Bath spas. Nothing else.

These stories should be recounted in the civic classes in our schools. It is a shame that a play was produced about Three Finger Jack in England, playing at one time in two cities simulta-neously. Jamaicans know more about Robert Bruce and the spider, about William Tell and the apple, about the Loch Ness Monster and Robin Hood and his Merry Men than the stories of our historical characters and the places with which they are associated.

stories

We are beginning to tell some of these stories during Black History Month and National Heroes Week. There was a time when writers such as Roger Mais and Archie Lindo wrote plays and poems about these personalities and the stories associated with them.

Take Robin Hood, there are dozens of stories published about him, plus films. Each story feeds on others. That is what we should be doing.

Now I see where a couple millions of dollars are to be spent refurbishing the Milk River and Bath mineral springs. But when will the roads leading to them be upgraded. One of the most beautiful women I have known lived in Constitution Hill in eastern St Andrew. I drove to her home from Kingston once, visited her once subsequently, and never saw her again. The road which was full of rocks and potholes destroyed the love I felt.

In addition, other attractions will need to be created adjacent to these spas. At Bath, for example, there was once a season of balls. Its botanical garden was also an attraction. At Milk River, there is nothing else to do but bathe and bathe and bathe. What about a weekly fish and bammy festival? Or kite festivals at Easter and at Christmas? Or horseback riding through the many acres in the vicinity? For without these added attractions, just bathing could be monotonous.