The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-12-02
RACE OF THE cAGoTs.
A French People who Are DeteAted
and Prosecuted by Their
NeiEhbors.

, The first historical mention Of the
Cagots dates from about the eleventh
century. Their origin is very uncer-
tain, as several authors have pet the
ories on the subject, which all amount
In the end to very much the same
thing-pure surmise. What was a
Cagot? Was he foreigner; was he
an atheist? Nothing of the kind. He
was a Frenchman; gcoa Catholic, ex-
actly as others were. What was the
matter with him, then? He was Ca
got. One is reminded of the rhyme
Of DR.. Fell. There was dislike, but no
reason. When one knows no real rea-
son, the obvious course is to invent one,
or several, and this is what the pure
race, as they called themselves, did.
First and foremost, they said the Ca
gots were lepers-that they descended,
in fact, from Gehazi, and that there
fore, they were an accursed race.
1t was bad enough to be a leper,
even without the outward and visible
signs, but there was a great deal more
to be said against the Cagots. Their
/ breath was detestable and poisonous;
! they had no lobe to their ears; they
were born with tails, which their cum
ming mothers instantly pinched off;
their skin was whittier, their hair fairer,
their eyes bluer than 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
werc 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 decoction of ivy
leaves with which to bathe it. The
moon was also responsible 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 Cagoutelle, and seen
if it be true that they ever existed
to correspond to the Neapolitan taran-
tella.
All these facts proved that the Ca
gots were dangerous and terrible peo
pie, who must not be allowed to con-
slider themselves equal to their purer
brethren, but must be constantly re-
minded of their inferior condition, a
duty which the pious countryfolk un-
Il. 4
conscientiousness, helped by law and
church. A Cagot was forbidden to carry
any weapon of defense, which in those
days of blood and iron reduced man
at once to the condition of a serf, and
made it impossible for him to hold his
own against the brutal and clustering
man at arms. The churches could not
be closed to them, but the priests
forced them to enter the holy places
by a separate door, so low that the ac-
cursed ones were forced to bend their
heads to pass through. There was a
special Cagot holy water stoup and an
line or boundary in the
church, across which no Cagot might
venture. The consecrated water was
held out to them on long wooden fork
by the priest standing on his own side
of the boundary. No priest would re-
ceive the confession of Cagot, though
these poor people seem to have been
most anxious to perform their religious
duties. The church never appears'to
have tried to soften their hard lot; on
the contrary, the priests were careful
to present the curse that weighed upon
them from falling into allegiance. Even
so late as the eighteenth century we
read that a seigneur of Lourbes having
insisted upon marrying Cagot, his
brother, who was of Lourbes, had his
estates confiscated, by virtue of an old
law which reduced anyone marrying a
Cagot to the same condition. To this
day the descendants of the couple are
1t took five Cagots to witness against
one pure" man. They were obliged /,
to wear a piece of cloth sewn on the
front of their dress; in some parts this
was shaped like a ducks foot, and was }
,ither red or yellow. They had to eat !
he meat condemned as bad in the mar ,
1ets, a privilege which they seem TO
lave shared. with the lepers, to whom
hey were so constantly and so un- 4
Justly likened, for we find in an old /,
tatue of the time of Robert III. Of =
the following pleasing pro- :
ision: st is statute, that gif any man n
rings TO the market corrupt swine or =
almond to be saudi, they sable taken :
0 the Bailies; and incontinent without :