Glossary

Hasher
A Hash House Harrier

Harriette
A female Hash House Harrier. Approach with caution.

Blob
A blob of flour which usually indicates you are on a trail.

Check/Checkpoint
A flour symbol showing you are on the right trail, and indicating a possible parting of real trail and false trails.

Checkback
A flour symbol meaning go back to the previous check. Or is it check backwards towards the previous check looking for a side trail? Something along those lines anyway.

Turnback
A flour symbol which means the opposite of whatever the symbol above means.

Backcheck
This has to be the opposite of a checkback, so the same thing as a turnback, right? Or maybe it’s the same as a checkback. Must be one or the other.

On-On
A shout by a hasher who has seen something white that might be a blob of flour but often isn’t, in which case see  Down-Down

Are-You?
An interrogatory shout, made on the dubious premise that the person you are shouting at might have some idea whether they are on trail or not.

Looking
A response to “Are-You”, given by a hasher who has veered off in a different direction to everybody else. This is taken to mean the hasher is looking for flour but hasn’t found any. More probably, the hasher is just trying to find a quiet spot for a pee (see  Down-Down )

Front Running Bastard (FRB)
A hasher whose ideal trail lasts for seven miles. See  Down-Down

Short Cutting Bastard (SCB)
A hasher whose ideal trail lasts for seven minutes. See  Down-Down

Virgin
A first-time hasher. See  Down-Down. Not to be confused with biological virgins, who are very rare in hashing and invariably male.

Down-Down
Conducted as a sort of post-mortem at the end of each hash, in the finest British tradition of rewarding the guilty and punishing the innocent.