The Irish standard., 1899-10-07
RACE OF TIE CAGOTS.
A French People Who Are Detested
and Prosecuted by Their
NeiEhbOrs,

ana refSCcuteu ny lnetE
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
cries 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 Frenchman, a good Catholic, eN
actly as others were. What was the
matter with him, then? He was Il 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 !eper,
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 pinchcd off;
their skin was whittier, their hair fairer,
their eyes blucr than good French
mans had any right to be. They We're
sorcerers and warIocl:s; they had the
evil eye; the unnatural heat of their
body was such that il a Cagct held some
grass or fruit in his hand it dried up
and withercd, and even in winter he
could bear no covering on his bed. They
were specially lcentious, 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 battle it. The
moon was also responsible for kind
of delirium which seized on the Cagots,
if they We're 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 countrywide I'M
dertook and carried out with great
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 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 separate door, so low that the ac-
cursed ones were forced to bend their
heads to pass through. There was
special Cagot holy water stoup, and an
imaginary line or boundary in the
church, across which no Cagot might
venture. The consccratcd 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 a 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
4 1n nt,,or bo f,,1
to present the curse that weighed upon
them from falling into allegiance. Even
so late as the eighteenth century we
read that a scigneur of Lourbcs having
insisted upon marrying a Cagot, his
brother, who was of Lourbes, had his
estates conliscated. ny virtue of an old
law which reduced anyone marry ING Il
Ca@0t to the same condition. 10 this
day the descendants OF the couple are
peasants. :; n
1T took five Ca-ots to witness against
one pure man. They were obliged
to wear Il piece of cloth sewn on the
front of their dress: in some parts this
was shaped like IL ducks foot, ans! was
either rcd or yellow. They had 10 eat
the meat condemned as bad in the mar.
kcts, privilege which they seem to
have shared with the lepers, to whom
they were SO constantly and Sc I'm.
justly lilened, for we find in an old
statue of the time of Robert III. OF
Scotland the following pleasing pro.
vision: ut is statute. that gif any man
brings to the market corrupt swine OF
salmond to be saudi, they sable taken
to the Battles; and incontinent without
any question sable send to the Upper
folk. and gif there be no Lip.
per folk, they sable destroyed, allu,
terlie."-Cornhill Magazine.
SufferinEs Of the Gagged bird.
You think your bird in its narrow
prison is happy because, unhappiiy TO,
itself. its movements are lively, it's ex-
preston contented. its song cheerful.
You little know what misery it may en-.
dure when forbidden to obey the most
powerful impulses of its nature. It
must be bitter enough to bear, even if
the prisoner has fellow in captivity;
how much bitterer if it is, as often hap.
pens, doomed to solitude. There is