The record-union., 1899-09-20
RACE OF THE CAGOTs.
A French People Detested by Their
Neighbors


The first historical mention of the
Cagots dates from about the eleventh
century Their origin is very uncertain,
as several authors have pet theories on
the subject, which all amount in the
end to very much the same thing-pure
surmise What is a Cagot? Was he
foreigner; was he an atheist? Moth
ing of the kind. He was F'renchman,
a good Catholic, exactly as others were.
What was the matter with him, then?
He was Cagot. One is reminded of
the old rhyme of DR.. Fell. There was
dislike, but no reason. When one knows
no real reason. the obvious course is
to invent one, or several, and this IS
what the pure race, as they call them
selves, did. First and foremost, they
said the Cagots were lepers-that they
descended, in fact, from Gehazi, and
that therefore they were an accursed
race. 1t was bad enough to be
a leper, even without the outward and
visible signs, but there was great
deal more to be said against the Cagots.
Their breath was detestable and pois-
onous: they had no lobe in their ears:
they were born with tails, which their
cunning mothers instantly pinched of;
their skin was whittier, their hair fairer,
their eyes bluer than a good French
mans had any right to be. They were
sorcerers and warlocks: they had the
evil eye; the unnatural heat of their
body was such that if a Cagot held
some grass or fruit in his hand it dried
up and withered, and even in winter
he could bear no covering on his bed.
They were specially licentiouS, hot
tempered, covetous, naughty, sinfully
proud and pretentious. At certain
phases of the moon their skin became
red and scaly, obliging them to use a
decoction of ivy leaves with which to
battle it. The moon was also respon-
sible for a kind of delirium which seized
on the Cagots, causing them to rush
wildly about as if they were mad.
These outbreaks were called the
Cagotelle, and seem-if it be true that
Neapolitan tarantella.
All these facts prove that the Cagots
were dangerous and terrible people,
who must not be allowed to consider
thmeseives equal to their purer breth-
rem, but must be constantly reminded
of their inferior condition, a duty which
the pious countryfolk undertook and
carried out with great conscientious
ness, helped by law and Church.
Cagot was forbidden to carry any
weapon Of Defense which in those days
OF blood and iron reduced man to the
condition of serf, and made it impossl-
bic for him to hold his own against the
brutal and clustering man at arms.
The churches could not be closed 10
them, but the priests forced them to
enter the holy place by separate door,
SO low that the accursed ones were
forced to bend their heads to pass
through. There was a special Cagot
holy water stoup, and an imaginary line
or boundary in the church across winch
no Cagot could venture. The conse-
Grated water was held out to them
on wooden fork by the priest stand
ing on his own side of the boundary.
No priest would receive the confession
of Cagot, although these poor people
seem to have been most anxious TO per-
form their religious duties. The church
never appears to have tried to soften
their hard lot: on the contrary, the
priests were careful to prevent the
curse that weighed upon them from
falling into abeyance. Even so late as
the eighteenth century we read that
seigneur of Lourbes having insisted