Carnival is here observed, though not with its ancient excess of folly.

This is a religious festival, observed in Roman Catholic countries as a season of feasting, by which another religious festival called Lent is introduced.

It is usually celebrated "by feasts, operas, balls, concerts, &c." In this city it is celebrated by masquerade dances by night, idle and frivolous street sport, in processions of vagrant men and boys, disguised in masks and grotesque array, by daylight.

A most ridiculous burlesque is exhibited in honor of St. Peter, the fisherman of Galilee, by which his professional skill in the use of the net is attempted to be illustrated. This is the closing farce of the feast of carnival.

The description of this, as it passed under the eye of the author at the very last carnival, may suffice to give a stranger some idea of its folly.

As I passed along one of the narrow streets of the city, my attention was arrested by the various exclamations and boisterous cries of a motley crowd of black and white, who thronged the street, occasionally surging to the right hand and left.

I was at first a loss to account for it. On a nearer approach, I perceived two half-grown men heading a rabble of boys and others, with the face masked and concealed, and the person attired in a course, shabby fisher's dress.

Over the shoulder of each was flung a common Spanish net. Whenever a boy black or white came within range of a cast, the net was suddenly spread and thrown over the lad's head so as to enclose his person.

There was seldom more than one throw of the net; and if it were not successful, it was seldom
repeated on the same individual. Thus the streets were beset till the farce - the solemn farce - in illustration of the call of Peter to become a "fisher of men," was ended.