CARNIVALS IN MANY LANDS 245 



was not intended to be so ostentatious as that given 

 by Comus and his followers. But Rex, accompanied 

 by his Queen, a New Orleans beauty selected for the 

 occasion, paid a visit to his ball in due masquerade, 

 and then retired with his revellers to the ball given by 

 Comus and his * Mistick Krewe,' where all played the 

 light fantastic till the clock struck midnight, after which 

 the masks were gradually and privately laid aside, and 

 the masked merry-makers appeared to their friends in 

 their usual costume and their own true colours." 



