Morning journal and courier., 1890-01-25
THE TWO FINISTRKRES.

SafdAAe Flohtng Ae she Ends of she
 Earth-A Romance Of che Pyrenees-
 The Atlantis of DuYO-Sentlnel and
 Prisoner In one.
 SANTIAGO DE CAMPosTELA, Spain, Jan. 8. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 One has all sorts of good luck in adven- ture when wandering among the lowly of any land. A most unexpected passage from Finis.erre, in Brittany, to Finisterre, in Spain, each the widest and most romantic portion of their respective countries, results ed from becoming acquainted with the Ere. ton seasantry and fisher folk about Carnac, Quimperle and Concarneau. Prowling about brought me among the sardine fishers. There are hosts of them at Concarneau. Thirteen hundred boats are in use, and the smell of curing and decaying fish is at times intolerable. But among the fishers there was an unusual excitement. One man, Pier re Floquet, formerly of Tregunc, had been most fortunate for years. It was whispered among his fellows that he had somehow made league with the fairies at the old Druid stones of Carnac, at midnight of Christmas eve, long ago, since when no ill-luck could befall him. There was legend, too, found, which told that he was of another race, a racs of strange, outlawed souls de- barred from mingling with other human kind, because of some old long-ago physical curse or taint that had been put upon his ancestors. In any event, every haul of Pierre Floquet's seine was a lucky one. While his fellows dragged along in need- whipped poverty, Pierre got rich, at least rich for a Eardine fisher of Consarneau. The more heard of the fellow the more cu- rious I was to know him. This was given added zest because of the wild tales told of the wondrous voyage he was about to make with his own family in his own new goelette or schooner, which he had purchased for the. to the envious fsher-folk, astounding sum of twenty thousand francs. The voyage was to Spain. I was going to Spain for a gipsy sort of tramp across that land to the Mediterranean. Why should I not become the companion of Pierre Floquets
 found the vil-leagued family living in hut under the walls ot Concarneau proper, or Ville Close, which at high tide is quite surrounded by the sea, so near the water out of which their harvests had come that twice each day it stole to the very threshold of the cabin, and babbled for an houY or two with Pierre's half doxsn children. Then 1t went away with the dirt and litter of the place, saving them all much labor. Why did want to know tho despised and ostracised Pierre Floqueta That is what he bluntly asked me. Because knew the sardine- fishers of America, and wished to learn ii 1 their sea-craft was like that of their breth. | ren in Brittany. As Pierre Floquet believed this, after had twice helped him with the | seines over the rough waters of the Baie de Ia Forest. from which Du Guesclin 30 say | aRely cannonaded the English garrison hold
 ing the old city for John de Moutfort, and ai
 said nothing of my hopes to join him or
 his voyage to Spain, we soon found liking
 for each other; and this, in the confdenc,
 which came, revealed the secret motive O
 the voyage, the shadow which had set grim ly between the man and his fellows, ant
 finally gave me the snug berth of passenge
 and friend on the Euriqueta del Meira, tn Spanish-named little craft which sailed out
 under Concarneau's grim walls with all o
 Pierre Floauet's earthly possessions, chief.
 converted into cheques on the Bank o
 Spain, Atocha 15. Madrid, for golden onzas
 while thousand Breton fishermen and thei
 wives looked after in open-mouthed wonder
 ment.
 But that was strange, wild story tha
 came little by little from Pierre Floquet'
 lips; a story that Hugo or Sue woul
 have woven into romance of the weirdes ] fascination. Among the Pyrenees, and tn
 Aquitanian mountain and valley countrie
 both sides of them, especially in Spanis Galicia, Navarro, Heuesca, Lerida and Gere na, in the French Heutes, Pyrenees, Gasco
 ny, Guienne, Poitou, and sparsely, in Brit ttany, live strange race of men called Ca } gots. Tho name is derived from canis Gt thicns, or Gothic dog. For a long tim tins, those goitered, rickety and leprou dwarfs of northern Spain and souther
 France. But the Cagots are another folk 6I
 tirely. They have large, bony, muscula
 forms, well-shaped skulls, almost Grecia noses, fine, blonde hair, blue eyes and fai y pinky complexions, with large but expre , sive mouths and regular, perfect teetl
 These were the striking characteristics ( D Pierre Floauet's form and face, as well as { t his three huge sons, his two massively- -bui t daughters, his half-dozen youths and bab' and of his wrinkled and white eye-lashe wife. The Cagots are believed to have. d'
 seconded from the Aryan Cloths. Wherev,
 they live away from the Pyrenees, in Franc
 and Spain, these marked and summed pet pie are variously called Calliberts, Caquin 3 Cacoas and Cahets. For thousand yea a they were superstitlously avoided by all otl !. CT inhabitants near them. They were d
 spised, persecuted, maltreated, regarded g cially and legally as outcasts, and the supe : stition of the darker times attributed < them all manner of foulness. They we :. believed to be witches; nuvieros, or raise of the storms and tempests, the Spanii
 peasantry called them. Every dark de' . possible was within their power. They e
 haled noxious odors. They bred pestilenc