The Carnival of the Animals and xylophone. From the beginning, Saint-Saëns regarded the work as a piece of fun. On 9 February 1886 he wrote to his publishers Durand in Paris that he was composing a work for the coming Shrove Tuesday, and confessing that he knew he should be working on his Third Symphony, but that this work was "such fun" (). He had apparently intended to write the work for his students at the École Niedermeyer, but it was first performed at a private concert given by the cellist Charles Lebouc on Shrove Tuesday, 9 March 1886. A second (private) performance was given
Maltese Carnival women. He was reported to the Grand Master, who admitted that he did not know what was happening in Malta. However the knight was arrested and he and another seven young knights, who was misbehaved during the last Carnival, were expelled from the island. Grand Master Marc'Antonio Zondadari introduced the game of "kukkanja" (cockaigne) to carnival in 1721: on a given signal, the crowd assembled in Palace Square converged on a collection of hams, sausages and live animals hidden beneath leafy branches outside the guard house. The provisions became the property of those who, having seized them, were able to