Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/316

 308 flying, and brass guns on board fired off very briskly. On the quarter-deck stood the admiral, captain, and boatswain, who, when he whistled, brought forth the sailors, some dancing, others heaving the log, and the tops filled with boys.

"The ship was followed by the representation of a large wood, with men in it dressed in green; a green, scaly skin was drawn over their own, and their faces were masked, to appear as savages, each squirting water at the people from large pewter syringes. This piece of machinery, which was very noble, was the production of a Jesuits' college, and caused great jollity among the common people. The wood was followed by a very tall man, dressed like an infant in a body-coat, and walking in a go-cart with a rattle in his hand; and this infant was followed by a man fifty-five feet high, with a boy looking out of his pocket shaking a rattle, and calling out, 'Grandpapa! grandpapa!' He was clothed in blue and gold, which reached quite to the ground, and concealed a body of men, who moved it, and made it dance.

"After him followed a figure nearly of the same stature, mounted on a horse of suitable size for the enormous rider, which made a most striking and elegant appearance, both man and horse being executed in a masterly manner; it was made in a moving posture, two of the feet being raised from the ground. Then followed a woman of equal stature, and not inferior in elegance to those which preceded. She had a watch at her side as large as a warming-pan, and her head and breast richly decorated with jewels; her eyes and head turned very naturally; and as she moved along she frequently danced, and not inelegantly. Thus ended the Cow-Mass."—The Sporting Magazine, vol. xv, pp. 26-28.