Paillasse is the French word for clown. I saw the spelling for the word on the Pascal Fuselier site and I also looked it up in Daigle's dictionary. It sounds like "pie-oss," or so it seemed to me when I heard it from Dad when he told us about Mardi Gras in the old days. The stories he told us were ones told to him from his Dad, Adan Hébert, our Paw Paw whom we never met. Memories are not always accurate, but this is what Dad remembered being told to him.
There were five characters in Mardi Gras: paillasse, bride, groom, captain, and Mardi Gras. The paillasse wore a burlap suit stuffed with corn husks; the stuffing made him look larger and also helped him withstand the whippings he received. Dad didn't say which character whipped the paillasse but I'm assuming it was the captain. He supposedly "led" the Mardi Gras group on their quest for food and money; however, now that I know paillasse means clown, I wonder why he led the group instead of the captain. That may not be accurate, but anyway, the paillasse led the Mardi Gras to people's houses, getting whipped on the way and on arrival.
The bride and groom, in costume, supervised the caught chickens and other goods collected by the Mardi Gras. Dad didn't mention this but I'm sure the bride was a man dressed like a woman; I don't think women played a major role in the actual running of the old Mardi Gras. The captain and Mardi Gras were the same as they are now. The characters new to me were the paillasse, bride, and groom. I haven't see them before, but I see similar characters in recent Mardi Gras photos.
Dad also mentioned crossing Mardi Gras groups would attempt to steal from each other. Can you imagine that? Imagine a L'Anse Grise Mardi Gras meeting up with a Vidrine Mardi Gras somewhere on the platin. The L'Anse Grise group may have ventured further out in search of adventure but ran into the Vidrine group. All the men spoke French and were our age and younger. They most likely cussed each other, in character, and attempted to steal each other's goods. Cussing, speaking French, laughing, drinking-- having a damn good time on the platin for Mardi Gras.