During this chase the other pilgrims have thrown themselves, as if in
despair, on the grass, where presently Hacco and his followers proceed
to kill them. But by this time all the actors are tired and thirsty;
so St. Evermaire and his friends rise up, and the whole company of
robbers and pilgrims walk off, and swill beer together for the rest of
the day. So ends the rustic pageant of Russon.
CHAPTER X
THE CARNIVAL
The week before Lent begins is called in Flanders _Duivelsweek_, which
means "The Devil's Week"; and on the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday
before Ash Wednesday there is the Carnival, so called from the Latin
words _carni vale_ (which mean, as every school-boy knows, "farewell
to the flesh"), because during Lent good Catholics should abjure "the
world, the flesh, and the devil," and refrain from eating meat. In
Ghent the Monday of that week is called _Zotten-Maanday_, or Fools'
Monday, and all over Belgium the next day (Shrove Tuesday in England)
is called _Mardi Gras_--that is, Fat Tuesday--the day on which people
can eat and drink as much as they like before beginning to fast.
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