52 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



and the harmless and child-loving practice of 

 eating pancakes is all that remains of " the 

 wisdom of our ancestors." 



Tuesday, February 8th inst., will be the 

 day of which we speak ; and it may not be 

 unacceptable to some of our readers, if we 

 devote a little space to its origin and former 

 celebration. 



The word shrove, by which this Tuesday is 

 distinguished in the calendar, is a corruption 

 of the old Saxon word shrive, and signifies con- 

 fession ; this being the day upon which all 

 the people were required by the Church to 

 confess their sins to their respective parish 

 priests. To ensure punctuality in their 

 attendance, the curfew-bell was tolled at an 

 early hour, and all servile work ceased. 



In Catholic countries, where the Carnival 

 is celebrated, this is the last day of that fes- 

 tival — a period of dinners, balls, masquerades, 

 and popular indulgence. On the nights of 

 the Carnival, a general confusion takes place ; 

 masters are dressed as servants, valets as 

 masters, the military as mechanics, and work- 

 men as soldiers ; every one puts on a strange 

 dress, and plays the incognito under the 

 favor of a mask ; but the populace engross 

 the remainder of the fete, by carrying through 

 the streets an image called the Carnival or 

 Shrove Tuesday ; and, feigning grief and 

 uttering piercing cries, they throw it into the 

 river. 



We borrow, says Pasquier, many things 

 from the Pagans ; as, instead of the ancient 

 Bacchanalia, we have introduced the Car- 

 nival, full of insolence and bad examples. 

 The Bacchanalia were festivals which the 

 Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians, and 

 were celebrated in honor of Bacchus, whom 

 they believed to be the same with Osiris. One 

 of the most essential parts of the festival 

 was to appear covered with the skins of he- 

 goats, tigers, and other animals ; their faces 

 being smeared with blood or wine-lees. A 

 fine, handsome, well-fed youth was selected 

 to personate Bacchus, who was placed in a 

 car ; and to give an air of the marvellous to 

 the scene, the pretended tigers drew the car, 

 while the he-goats and the kids gambolled 

 about them under the form of satyrs and fawns. 

 Those who followed and accompanied the car 

 were called Bacchants and Bacchantes ; that 

 is, male and female mourners : last of all, ap- 

 peared an old man, representing Silenus, 

 riding on an ass, and distributing his jokes 

 and gibes among the surrounding populace. 

 Thus the balls and masquerades of the French 

 may, perhaps, derive their origin from these 

 religious ceremonies of their ancestors. On 

 the last day of the Carnival, they celebrate 

 the ceremony of the " Femmes folles, " or 

 foolish women ; but this is the case only 

 when any one has commenced housekeeping 

 in the course of the year. The married wo- 



men (not the youngest in the village) meet 

 together, and disguise themselves by putting 

 the front part of their caps behind, to which 

 rags are suspended, and by blacking their 

 faces : thus arrayed, they proceed dancing 

 and singing, to the domicile of the new house- 

 keeper. Having gained admittance, they 

 leap, jump, and dance about, and sing coup- 

 lets and songs adapted to the occasion, and 

 to the music of the epistle at grand mass. The 

 inhabitants of the house are bound to regale 

 the actresses in this burlesque scene ; and, if 

 they refuse, the women make no scruple of 

 taking away what furniture they like ; and 

 carrying it to the wine-house ( cabaret), it is 

 there deposited as a pledge for the entertain- 

 ment they may choose to order ; and the pro- 

 prietor of it must pay the cabaretier his bill, 

 before he is allowed to redeem his effects. 



It is said that the custom of eating pan- 

 cakes on this day is an English one, and ori- 

 ginated, early in the fifteenth century, with 

 one Simon Eyre, a Lord Mayor of London, 

 who made a pancake-feast for all the appren- 

 tices in London ; and ordered that, upon 

 ringing a bell in every parish, still called the 

 pancake bell, these youths should leave work 

 for the day. In Pasquier's ' Palinodia 1 (1634) 

 it is merely said, that on this day every 

 stomach 



" Till it can hold no more, 

 Is fritter-filled, as well as heart can wish ! 

 And every man and maide doe take their turn, 

 And toss their pancakes up for fear they Lurne ; 

 And all the kitchen doth with laughter sound, 

 To see the pancakes fall upon the ground." 



But pan cake- eating was not, as we have 

 already intimated, the only pastime in which 

 our forefathers indulged. " Upon this day," 

 says an old author, " men ate and drank and 

 abandoned themselves to every kind of spor- 

 tive foolery, as if resolved to have their fill 

 of pleasure before they were to die." Foot- 

 ball, and snow-ball — if the snow remained 

 upon the ground — were amongst the sports 

 of the festival ; and the " city 'prentices," 

 dear lads for a brawl , which they loved the 

 better if it assumed the character of a serious 

 riot — turned out 



11 In Finsbury-fields ; — their brave intent 

 To advise the king and parliament," 



whenever they took it into their wise heads 

 that their advice was needed ; and otherwise, 

 when the day was spent in any other way 

 that pleased their 'prenticeships. 



The shying at the hen was the worst " sport" 

 indulged in. The poor bird was tied by its 

 leg to a stake; and he who first broke its leg, 

 by a large stick thrown from a certain dis- 

 tance, was entitled to the prize. The school- 

 boy practice of shying at leaden cocks, is 

 doubtless a harmless imitatiou of this brutal 

 pastime. The cock-fighting of this season is 



