Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


A more curious ceremony still, whose origin, we think, may be traced to
the Dionysian feasts of heathenism, has continued to be observed to this
day at Beziers. It bears the names of the _Feast of Pepezuch_, the
_Triumph of Beziers,_ or the _Feast of Caritats_ or _Charites_. At the
bottom of the Rue Francaise at Beziers, a statue is to be seen which,
notwithstanding the mutilations to which it has been subjected, still
distinctly bears traces of being an ancient work of the most refined
period of art. This statue represents Pepezuch, a citizen of Beziers, who,
according to somewhat questionable tradition, valiantly defended the town
against the Goths, or, as some say, against the English; its origin,
therefore, cannot be later than the thirteenth century. On Ascension Day,
the day of the Feast of Pepezuch, an immense procession went about the
town. Three remarkable machines were particularly noticeable; the first
was an enormous wooden camel made to walk by mechanism, and to move its
limbs and jaws; the second was a galley on wheels fully manned; the third
consisted of a cart on which a travelling theatre was erected. The consuls
and other civic authorities, the corporations of trades having the pastors
walking in front of them, the farriers on horseback, all bearing their
respective insignia and banners, formed the procession. A double column,
composed of a division of young men and young women holding white hoops
decorated with ribbons and many-coloured streamers, was preceded by a
young girl crowned with flowers, half veiled, and carrying a basket. This
brilliant procession marched to the sound of music, and, at certain
distances, the youthful couples of the two sexes halted, in order to
perform, with the assistance of their hoops, various figures, which were
called the _Danse des Treilles_. The machines also stopped from time to
time at various places. The camel was especially made to enter the Church
of St. Aphrodise, because it was said that the apostle had first come on a
camel to preach the Gospel in that country, and there to receive the palm
of martyrdom. On arriving before the statue of Pepezuch the young people
decorated it with garlands. When the square of the town was reached, the
theatre was stopped like the ancient car of Thespis, and the actors
treated the people to a few comical drolleries in imitation of
Aristophanes. From the galley the youths flung sugar-plums and sweetmeats,
which the spectators returned in equal profusion. The procession closed
with a number of men, crowned with green leaves, carrying on their heads
loaves of bread, which, with other provisions contained in the galley,
were distributed amongst the poor of the town.

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