Peeps At Many Lands: Belgium

before Ash Wednesday there is the Carnival, so called from the Latin words carni vale (which mean, as every school-boy knows, "farewel

Belgium the next day (Shrove Tuesday in England) is called Mardi Gras-that is, Fat Tuesd

other people, whether you know them or not. The children have often great fun, covering each other with these bits of paper, which stick in the hair and are very difficult to shake off. In some of the streets at Brussels the pavements are carpeted all the time of the Carnival with thousands of these small pink, yellow, and white fragments, which the people have been throwing a

giant called Lange Man, or Long Man. He is probably still to be seen at Hasselt, in the South of Belgium, which was his native place. A good many years ago he was carried through the streets on a car drawn by four horses, and all the poor people got soup

Carnival goes on, with more or less gaiety, everywhere. There are few towns where masked balls do not take place, and these usually last all night, so that so

, whom you know in England, makes his appearance. He is called De Greef van Half-Fasten-that is, the Count of Mi-Carême-and comes to give presents to all good

ides along with a sack of nuts, which he throws about for anyone to pick up. Strange to