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diff --git a/2531-0.txt b/2531-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd7b62d --- /dev/null +++ b/2531-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,954 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Accursed Race, by Elizabeth Gaskell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: An Accursed Race + +Author: Elizabeth Gaskell + +Release Date: March, 2001 [eBook #2531] +[Most recently updated: December 22, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Price, Jennifer Lee, Alev Akman and Andy Wallace + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ACCURSED RACE *** + + + + +AN ACCURSED RACE +Elizabeth Gaskell + + +We have our prejudices in England. Or, if that assertion offends any of +my readers, I will modify it: we have had our prejudices in England. We +have tortured Jews; we have burnt Catholics and Protestants, to say +nothing of a few witches and wizards. We have satirized Puritans, and we +have dressed-up Guys. But, after all, I do not think we have been so bad +as our Continental friends. To be sure, our insular position has kept us +free, to a certain degree, from the inroads of alien races; who, driven +from one land of refuge, steal into another equally unwilling to receive +them; and where, for long centuries, their presence is barely endured, +and no pains is taken to conceal the repugnance which the natives of +"pure blood" experience towards them. + +There yet remains a remnant of the miserable people called Cagots in the +valleys of the Pyrenees; in the Landes near Bourdeaux; and, stretching up +on the west side of France, their numbers become larger in Lower +Brittany. Even now, the origin of these families is a word of shame to +them among their neighbours; although they are protected by the law, +which confirmed them in the equal rights of citizens about the end of the +last century. Before then they had lived, for hundreds of years, +isolated from all those who boasted of pure blood, and they had been, all +this time, oppressed by cruel local edicts. They were truly what they +were popularly called, The Accursed Race. + +All distinct traces of their origin are lost. Even at the close of that +period which we call the Middle Ages, this was a problem which no one +could solve; and as the traces, which even then were faint and uncertain, +have vanished away one by one, it is a complete mystery at the present +day. Why they were accursed in the first instance, why isolated from +their kind, no one knows. From the earliest accounts of their state that +are yet remaining to us, it seems that the names which they gave each +other were ignored by the population they lived amongst, who spoke of +them as Crestiaa, or Cagots, just as we speak of animals by their generic +names. Their houses or huts were always placed at some distance out of +the villages of the country-folk, who unwillingly called in the services +of the Cagots as carpenters, or tilers, or slaters--trades which seemed +appropriated by this unfortunate race--who were forbidden to occupy land, +or to bear arms, the usual occupations of those times. They had some +small right of pasturage on the common lands, and in the forests: but the +number of their cattle and live-stock was strictly limited by the +earliest laws relating to the Cagots. They were forbidden by one act to +have more than twenty sheep, a pig, a ram, and six geese. The pig was to +be fattened and killed for winter food; the fleece of the sheep was to +clothe them; but if the said sheep had lambs, they were forbidden to eat +them. Their only privilege arising from this increase was, that they +might choose out the strongest and finest in preference to keeping the +old sheep. At Martinmas the authorities of the commune came round, and +counted over the stock of each Cagot. If he had more than his appointed +number, they were forfeited; half went to the commune, half to the +baillie, or chief magistrate of the commune. The poor beasts were +limited as to the amount of common which they might stray over in search +of grass. While the cattle of the inhabitants of the commune might +wander hither and thither in search of the sweetest herbage, the deepest +shade, or the coolest pool in which to stand on the hot days, and lazily +switch their dappled sides, the Cagot sheep and pig had to learn +imaginary bounds, beyond which if they strayed, any one might snap them +up, and kill them, reserving a part of the flesh for his own use, but +graciously restoring the inferior parts to their original owner. Any +damage done by the sheep was, however, fairly appraised, and the Cagot +paid no more for it than any other man would have done. + +Did a Cagot leave his poor cabin, and venture into the towns, even to +render services required of him in the way of his trade, he was bidden, by all +the municipal laws, to stand by and remember his rude old state. In all +the towns and villages the large districts extending on both sides of the +Pyrenees--in all that part of Spain--they were forbidden to buy or sell +anything eatable, to walk in the middle (esteemed the better) part of the +streets, to come within the gates before sunrise, or to be found after +sunset within the walls of the town. But still, as the Cagots were good- +looking men, and (although they bore certain natural marks of their +caste, of which I shall speak by-and-by) were not easily distinguished by +casual passers-by from other men, they were compelled to wear some +distinctive peculiarity which should arrest the eye; and, in the greater +number of towns, it was decreed that the outward sign of a Cagot should +be a piece of red cloth sewed conspicuously on the front of his dress. In +other towns, the mark of Cagoterie was the foot of a duck or a goose hung +over their left shoulder, so as to be seen by any one meeting them. After +a time, the more convenient badge of a piece of yellow cloth cut out in +the shape of a duck's foot, was adopted. If any Cagot was found in any +town or village without his badge, he had to pay a fine of five sous, and +to lose his dress. He was expected to shrink away from any passer-by, +for fear that their clothes should touch each other; or else to stand +still in some corner or by-place. If the Cagots were thirsty during the +days which they passed in those towns where their presence was barely +suffered, they had no means of quenching their thirst, for they were +forbidden to enter into the little cabarets or taverns. Even the water +gushing out of the common fountain was prohibited to them. Far away, in +their own squalid village, there was the Cagot fountain, and they were +not allowed to drink of any other water. A Cagot woman having to make +purchases in the town, was liable to be flogged out of it if she went to +buy anything except on a Monday--a day on which all other people who +could, kept their houses for fear of coming in contact with the accursed +race. + +In the Pays Basque, the prejudices--and for some time the laws--ran +stronger against them than any which I have hitherto mentioned. The +Basque Cagot was not allowed to possess sheep. He might keep a pig for +provision, but his pig had no right of pasturage. He might cut and carry +grass for the ass, which was the only other animal he was permitted to +own; and this ass was permitted, because its existence was rather an +advantage to the oppressor, who constantly availed himself of the Cagot's +mechanical skill, and was glad to have him and his tools easily conveyed +from one place to another. + +The race was repulsed by the State. Under the small local governments +they could hold no post whatsoever. And they were barely tolerated by +the Church, although they were good Catholics, and zealous frequenters of +the mass. They might only enter the churches by a small door set apart +for them, through which no one of the pure race ever passed. This door +was low, so as to compel them to make an obeisance. It was occasionally +surrounded by sculpture, which invariably represented an oak-branch with +a dove above it. When they were once in, they might not go to the holy +water used by others. They had a benitier of their own; nor were they +allowed to share in the consecrated bread when that was handed round to +the believers of the pure race. The Cagots stood afar off, near the +door. There were certain boundaries--imaginary lines on the nave and in +the aisles which they might not pass. In one or two of the more tolerant +of the Pyrenean villages, the blessed bread was offered to the Cagots, +the priest standing on one side of the boundary, and giving the pieces of +bread on a long wooden fork to each person successively. + +When the Cagot died, he was interred apart, in a plot burying-ground on +the north side of the cemetery. Under such laws and prescriptions as I +have described, it is no wonder that he was generally too poor to have +much property for his children to inherit; but certain descriptions of it +were forfeited to the commune. The only possession which all who were +not of his own race refused to touch, was his furniture. That was +tainted, infectious, unclean--fit for none but Cagots. + +When such were, for at least three centuries, the prevalent usages and +opinions with regard to this oppressed race, it is not surprising that we +read of occasional outbursts of ferocious violence on their part. In the +Basses-Pyrenees, for instance it is only about a hundred years since, +that the Cagots of Rehouilhes rose up against the inhabitants of the +neighbouring town of Lourdes, and got the better of them, by their +magical powers as it is said. The people of Lourdes were conquered and +slain, and their ghastly, bloody heads served the triumphant Cagots for +balls to play at ninepins with! The local parliaments had begun, by this +time, to perceive how oppressive was the ban of public opinion under +which the Cagots lay, and were not inclined to enforce too severe a +punishment. Accordingly, the decree of the parliament of Toulouse +condemned only the leading Cagots concerned in this affray to be put to +death, and that henceforward and for ever no Cagot was to be permitted to +enter the town of Lourdes by any gate but that called Capdet-pourtet: +they were only to be allowed to walk under the rain-gutters, and neither +to sit, eat, nor drink in the town. If they failed in observing any of +these rules, the parliament decreed, in the spirit of Shylock, that the +disobedient Cagots should have two strips of flesh, weighing never more +than two ounces a-piece, cut out from each side of their spines. + +In the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries it was considered +no more a crime to kill a Cagot than to destroy obnoxious vermin. A +"nest of Cagots," as the old accounts phrase it, had assembled in a +deserted castle of Mauvezin, about the year sixteen hundred; and, +certainly, they made themselves not very agreeable neighbours, as they +seemed to enjoy their reputation of magicians; and, by some acoustic +secrets which were known to them, all sorts of moanings and groanings +were heard in the neighbouring forests, very much to the alarm of the +good people of the pure race; who could not cut off a withered branch for +firewood, but some unearthly sound seemed to fill the air, nor drink +water which was not poisoned, because the Cagots would persist in filling +their pitchers at the same running stream. Added to these grievances, +the various pilferings perpetually going on in the neighbourhood made the +inhabitants of the adjacent towns and hamlets believe that they had a +very sufficient cause for wishing to murder all the Cagots in the Chateau +de Mauvezin. But it was surrounded by a moat, and only accessible by a +drawbridge; besides which, the Cagots were fierce and vigilant. Some +one, however, proposed to get into their confidence; and for this purpose +he pretended to fall ill close to their path, so that on returning to +their stronghold they perceived him, and took him in, restored him to +health, and made a friend of him. One day, when they were all playing at +ninepins in the woods, their treacherous friend left the party on +pretence of being thirsty, and went back into the castle, drawing up the +bridge after he had passed over it, and so cutting off their means of +escape into safety. Them, going up to the highest part of the castle, he +blew a horn, and the pure race, who were lying in wait on the watch for +some such signal, fell upon the Cagots at their games, and slew them all. +For this murder I find no punishment decreed in the parliament of +Toulouse, or elsewhere. + +As any intermarriage with the pure race was strictly forbidden, and as +there were books kept in every commune in which the names and habitations +of the reputed Cagots were written, these unfortunate people had no hope +of ever becoming blended with the rest of the population. Did a Cagot +marriage take place, the couple were serenaded with satirical songs. They +also had minstrels, and many of their romances are still current in +Brittany; but they did not attempt to make any reprisals of satire or +abuse. Their disposition was amiable, and their intelligence great. +Indeed, it required both these qualities, and their great love of +mechanical labour, to make their lives tolerable. + +At last, they began to petition that they might receive some protection +from the laws; and, towards the end of the seventeenth century, the +judicial power took their side. But they gained little by this. Law +could not prevail against custom: and, in the ten or twenty years just +preceding the first French revolution, the prejudice in France against +the Cagots amounted to fierce and positive abhorrence. + +At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Cagots of Navarre +complained to the Pope, that they were excluded from the fellowship of +men, and accursed by the Church, because their ancestors had given help +to a certain Count Raymond of Toulouse in his revolt against the Holy +See. They entreated his holiness not to visit upon them the sins of +their fathers. The Pope issued a bull on the thirteenth of May, fifteen +hundred and fifteen--ordering them to be well-treated and to be admitted +to the same privileges as other men. He charged Don Juan de Santa Maria +of Pampeluna to see to the execution of this bull. But Don Juan was slow +to help, and the poor Spanish Cagots grew impatient, and resolved to try +the secular power. They accordingly applied to the Cortes of Navarre, +and were opposed on a variety of grounds. First, it was stated that +their ancestors had had "nothing to do with Raymond Count of Toulouse, or +with any such knightly personage; that they were in fact descendants of +Gehazi, servant of Elisha (second book of Kings, fifth chapter, twenty- +seventh verse), who had been accursed by his master for his fraud upon +Naaman, and doomed, he and his descendants, to be lepers for evermore. +Name, Cagots or Gahets; Gahets, Gehazites. What can be more clear? And +if that is not enough, and you tell us that the Cagots are not lepers +now; we reply that there are two kinds of leprosy, one perceptible and +the other imperceptible, even to the person suffering from it. Besides, +it is the country talk, that where the Cagot treads, the grass withers, +proving the unnatural heat of his body. Many credible and trustworthy +witnesses will also tell you that, if a Cagot holds a freshly-gathered +apple in his hand, it will shrivel and wither up in an hour's time as +much as if it had been kept for a whole winter in a dry room. They are +born with tails; although the parents are cunning enough to pinch them +off immediately. Do you doubt this? If it is not true, why do the +children of the pure race delight in sewing on sheep's tails to the dress +of any Cagot who is so absorbed in his work as not to perceive them? And +their bodily smell is so horrible and detestable that it shows that they +must be heretics of some vile and pernicious description, for do we not +read of the incense of good workers, and the fragrance of holiness?" + +Such were literally the arguments by which the Cagots were thrown back +into a worse position than ever, as far as regarded their rights as +citizens. The Pope insisted that they should receive all their +ecclesiastical privileges. The Spanish priests said nothing; but tacitly +refused to allow the Cagots to mingle with the rest of the faithful, +either dead or alive. The accursed race obtained laws in their favour +from the Emperor Charles the Fifth; which, however, there was no one to +carry into effect. As a sort of revenge for their want of submission, +and for their impertinence in daring to complain, their tools were all +taken away from them by the local authorities: an old man and all his +family died of starvation, being no longer allowed to fish. + +They could not emigrate. Even to remove their poor mud habitations, from +one spot to another, excited anger and suspicion. To be sure, in sixteen +hundred and ninety-five, the Spanish government ordered the alcaldes to +search out all the Cagots, and to expel them before two months had +expired, under pain of having fifty ducats to pay for every Cagot +remaining in Spain at the expiration of that time. The inhabitants of +the villages rose up and flogged out any of the miserable race who might +be in their neighbourhood; but the French were on their guard against +this enforced irruption, and refused to permit them to enter France. +Numbers were hunted up into the inhospitable Pyrenees, and there died of +starvation, or became a prey to wild beasts. They were obliged to wear +both gloves and shoes when they were thus put to flight, otherwise the +stones and herbage they trod upon and the balustrades of the bridges that +they handled in crossing, would, according to popular belief, have become +poisonous. + +And all this time, there was nothing remarkable or disgusting in the +outward appearance of this unfortunate people. There was nothing about +them to countenance the idea of their being lepers--the most natural mode +of accounting for the abhorrence in which they were held. They were +repeatedly examined by learned doctors, whose experiments, although +singular and rude, appear to have been made in a spirit of humanity. For +instance, the surgeons of the king of Navarre, in sixteen hundred, bled +twenty-two Cagots, in order to examine and analyze their blood. They +were young and healthy people of both sexes; and the doctors seem to have +expected that they should have been able to extract some new kind of salt +from their blood which might account for the wonderful heat of their +bodies. But their blood was just like that of other people. Some of +these medical men have left us a description of the general appearance of +this unfortunate race, at a time when they were more numerous and less +intermixed than they are now. The families existing in the south and +west of France, who are reputed to be of Cagot descent at this day, are, +like their ancestors, tall, largely made, and powerful in frame; fair and +ruddy in complexion, with gray-blue eyes, in which some observers see a +pensive heaviness of look. Their lips are thick, but well-formed. Some +of the reports name their sad expression of countenance with surprise and +suspicion--"They are not gay, like other folk." The wonder would be if +they were. Dr. Guyon, the medical man of the last century who has left +the clearest report on the health of the Cagots, speaks of the vigorous +old age they attain to. In one family alone, he found a man of seventy- +four years of age; a woman as old, gathering cherries; and another woman, +aged eighty-three, was lying on the grass, having her hair combed by her +great-grandchildren. Dr. Guyon and other surgeons examined into the +subject of the horribly infectious smell which the Cagots were said to +leave behind them, and upon everything they touched; but they could +perceive nothing unusual on this head. They also examined their ears, +which according to common belief (a belief existing to this day), were +differently shaped from those of other people; being round and gristly, +without the lobe of flesh into which the ear-ring is inserted. They +decided that most of the Cagots whom they examined had the ears of this +round shape; but they gravely added, that they saw no reason why this +should exclude them from the good-will of men, and from the power of +holding office in Church and State. They recorded the fact, that the +children of the towns ran baaing after any Cagot who had been compelled +to come into the streets to make purchases, in allusion to this +peculiarity of the shape of the ear, which bore some resemblance to the +ears of the sheep as they are cut by the shepherds in this district. Dr. +Guyon names the case of a beautiful Cagot girl, who sang most sweetly, +and prayed to be allowed to sing canticles in the organ-loft. The +organist, more musician than bigot, allowed her to come, but the +indignant congregation, finding out whence proceeded that clear, fresh +voice, rushed up to the organ-loft, and chased the girl out, bidding her +"remember her ears," and not commit the sacrilege of singing praises to +God along with the pure race. + +But this medical report of Dr. Guyon's--bringing facts and arguments to +confirm his opinion, that there was no physical reason why the Cagots +should not be received on terms of social equality by the rest of the +world--did no more for his clients than the legal decrees promulgated two +centuries before had done. The French proved the truth of the saying in +Hudibras-- + + He that's convinced against his will + Is of the same opinion still. + +And, indeed, the being convinced by Dr. Guyon that they ought to receive +Cagots as fellow-creatures, only made them more rabid in declaring that +they would not. One or two little occurrences which are recorded, show +that the bitterness of the repugnance to the Cagots was in full force at +the time just preceding the first French revolution. There was a M. +d'Abedos, the curate of Lourdes, and brother to the seigneur of the +neighbouring castle, who was living in seventeen hundred and eighty; he +was well-educated for the time, a travelled man, and sensible and +moderate in all respects but that of his abhorrence of the Cagots: he +would insult them from the very altar, calling out to them, as they stood +afar off, "Oh! ye Cagots, damned for evermore!" One day, a half-blind +Cagot stumbled and touched the censer borne before this Abbe de Lourdes. +He was immediately turned out of the church, and forbidden ever to re- +enter it. One does not know how to account for the fact, that the very +brother of this bigoted abbe, the seigneur of the village, went and +married a Cagot girl; but so it was, and the abbe brought a legal process +against him, and had his estates taken from him, solely on account of his +marriage, which reduced him to the condition of a Cagot, against whom the +old law was still in force. The descendants of this Seigneur de Lourdes +are simple peasants at this very day, working on the lands which belonged +to their grandfather. + +This prejudice against mixed marriages remained prevalent until very +lately. The tradition of the Cagot descent lingered among the people, +long after the laws against the accursed race were abolished. A Breton +girl, within the last few years, having two lovers each of reputed Cagot +descent, employed a notary to examine their pedigrees, and see which of +the two had least Cagot in him; and to that one she gave her hand. In +Brittany the prejudice seems to have been more virulent than anywhere +else. M. Emile Souvestre records proofs of the hatred borne to them in +Brittany so recently as in eighteen hundred and thirty-five. Just lately +a baker at Hennebon, having married a girl of Cagot descent, lost all his +custom. The godfather and godmother of a Cagot child became Cagots +themselves by the Breton laws, unless, indeed, the poor little baby died +before attaining a certain number of days. They had to eat the butchers' +meat condemned as unhealthy; but, for some unknown reason, they were +considered to have a right to every cut loaf turned upside down, with its +cut side towards the door, and might enter any house in which they saw a +loaf in this position, and carry it away with them. About thirty years +ago, there was the skeleton of a hand hanging up as an offering in a +Breton church near Quimperle, and the tradition was, that it was the hand +of a rich Cagot who had dared to take holy water out of the usual +benitier, some time at the beginning of the reign of Louis the Sixteenth; +which an old soldier witnessing, he lay in wait, and the next time the +offender approached the benitier he cut off his hand, and hung it up, +dripping with blood, as an offering to the patron saint of the church. +The poor Cagots in Brittany petitioned against their opprobrious name, +and begged to be distinguished by the appelation of Malandrins. To +English ears one is much the same as the other, as neither conveys any +meaning; but, to this day, the descendants of the Cagots do not like to +have this name applied to them, preferring that of Malandrin. + +The French Cagots tried to destroy all the records of their pariah +descent, in the commotions of seventeen hundred and eighty-nine; but if +writings have disappeared, the tradition yet remains, and points out such +and such a family as Cagot, or Malandrin, or Oiselier, according to the +old terms of abhorrence. + +There are various ways in which learned men have attempted to account for +the universal repugnance in which this well-made, powerful race are held. +Some say that the antipathy to them took its rise in the days when +leprosy was a dreadfully prevalent disease; and that the Cagots are more +liable than any other men to a kind of skin disease, not precisely +leprosy, but resembling it in some of its symptoms; such as dead +whiteness of complexion, and swellings of the face and extremities. There +was also some resemblance to the ancient Jewish custom in respect to +lepers, in the habit of the people; who on meeting a Cagot called out, +"Cagote? Cagote?" to which they were bound to reply, "Perlute! perlute!" +Leprosy is not properly an infectious complaint, in spite of the horror +in which the Cagot furniture, and the cloth woven by them, are held in +some places; the disorder is hereditary, and hence (say this body of wise +men, who have troubled themselves to account for the origin of Cagoterie) +the reasonableness and the justice of preventing any mixed marriages, by +which this terrible tendency to leprous complaints might be spread far +and wide. Another authority says, that though the Cagots are +fine-looking men, hard-working, and good mechanics, yet they bear in +their faces, and show in their actions, reasons for the detestation in +which they are held: their glance, if you meet it, is the jettatura, or +evil-eye, and they are spiteful, and cruel, and deceitful above all other +men. All these qualities they derive from their ancestor Gehazi, the +servant of Elisha, together with their tendency to leprosy. + +Again, it is said that they are descended from the Arian Goths who were +permitted to live in certain places in Guienne and Languedoc, after their +defeat by King Clovis, on condition that they abjured their heresy, and +kept themselves separate from all other men for ever. The principal +reason alleged in support of this supposition of their Gothic descent, is +the specious one of derivation,--Chiens Gots, Cans Gets, Cagots, +equivalent to Dogs of Goths. + +Again, they were thought to be Saracens, coming from Syria. In +confirmation of this idea, was the belief that all Cagots were possessed +by a horrible smell. The Lombards, also, were an unfragrant race, or so +reputed among the Italians: witness Pope Stephen's letter to Charlemagne, +dissuading him from marrying Bertha, daughter of Didier, King of +Lombardy. The Lombards boasted of Eastern descent, and were noisome. The +Cagots were noisome, and therefore must be of Eastern descent. What +could be clearer? In addition, there was the proof to be derived from +the name Cagot, which those maintaining the opinion of their Saracen +descent held to be Chiens, or Chasseurs des Gots, because the Saracens +chased the Goths out of Spain. Moreover, the Saracens were originally +Mahometans, and as such obliged to bathe seven times a-day: whence the +badge of the duck's foot. A duck was a water-bird: Mahometans bathed in +the water. Proof upon proof! + +In Brittany the common idea was, they were of Jewish descent. Their +unpleasant smell was again pressed into service. The Jews, it was well +known, had this physical infirmity, which might be cured either by +bathing in a certain fountain in Egypt--which was a long way from +Brittany--or by anointing themselves with the blood of a Christian child. +Blood gushed out of the body of every Cagot on Good Friday. No wonder, +if they were of Jewish descent. It was the only way of accounting for so +portentous a fact. Again; the Cagots were capital carpenters, which gave +the Bretons every reason to believe that their ancestors were the very +Jews who made the cross. When first the tide of emigration set from +Brittany to America, the oppressed Cagots crowded to the ports, seeking +to go to some new country, where their race might be unknown. Here was +another proof of their descent from Abraham and his nomadic people: and, +the forty years' wandering in the wilderness and the Wandering Jew +himself, were pressed into the service to prove that the Cagots derived +their restlessness and love of change from their ancestors, the Jews. The +Jews, also, practised arts-magic, and the Cagots sold bags of wind to the +Breton sailors, enchanted maidens to love them--maidens who never would +have cared for them, unless they had been previously enchanted--made +hollow rocks and trees give out strange and unearthly noises, and sold +the magical herb called _bon-succes_. It is true enough that, in all the +early acts of the fourteenth century, the same laws apply to Jews as to +Cagots, and the appellations seem used indiscriminately; but their fair +complexions, their remarkable devotion to all the ceremonies of the +Catholic Church, and many other circumstances, conspire to forbid our +believing them to be of Hebrew descent. + +Another very plausible idea is, that they are the descendants of +unfortunate individuals afflicted with goitres, which is, even to this +day, not an uncommon disorder in the gorges and valleys of the Pyrenees. +Some have even derived the word goitre from Got, or Goth; but their name, +Crestia, is not unlike Cretin, and the same symptoms of idiotism were not +unusual among the Cagots; although sometimes, if old tradition is to be +credited, their malady of the brain took rather the form of violent +delirium, which attacked them at new and full moons. Then the workmen +laid down their tools, and rushed off from their labour to play mad +pranks up and down the country. Perpetual motion was required to +alleviate the agony of fury that seized upon the Cagots at such times. In +this desire for rapid movement, the attack resembled the Neapolitan +tarantella; while in the mad deeds they performed during such attacks, +they were not unlike the northern Berserker. In Bearn especially, those +suffering from this madness were dreaded by the pure race; the Bearnais, +going to cut their wooden clogs in the great forests that lay around the +base of the Pyrenees, feared above all things to go too near the periods +when the Cagoutelle seized on the oppressed and accursed people; from +whom it was then the oppressors' turn to fly. A man was living within +the memory of some, who married a Cagot wife; he used to beat her right +soundly when he saw the first symptoms of the Cagoutelle, and, having +reduced her to a wholesome state of exhaustion and insensibility, he +locked her up until the moon had altered her shape in the heavens. If he +had not taken such decided steps, say the oldest inhabitants, there is no +knowing what might have happened. + +From the thirteenth to the end of the nineteenth century, there are facts +enough to prove the universal abhorrence in which this unfortunate race +was held; whether called Cagots, or Gahets in Pyrenean districts, +Caqueaux in Brittany, or Yaqueros Asturias. The great French revolution +brought some good out of its fermentation of the people: the more +intelligent among them tried to overcome the prejudice against the +Cagots. + +In seventeen hundred and eighteen, there was a famous cause tried at +Biarritz relating to Cagot rights and privileges. There was a wealthy +miller, Etienne Arnauld by name, of the race of Gotz, Quagotz, Bisigotz, +Astragotz, or Gahetz, as his people are described in the legal document. +He married an heiress, a Gotte (or Cagot) of Biarritz; and the +newly-married well-to-do couple saw no reason why they should stand near +the door in the church, nor why he should not hold some civil office in +the commune, of which he was the principal inhabitant. Accordingly, he +petitioned the law that he and his wife might be allowed to sit in the +gallery of the church, and that he might be relieved from his civil +disabilities. This wealthy white miller, Etienne Arnauld, pursued his +rights with some vigour against the Baillie of Labourd, the dignitary of +the neighbourhood. Whereupon the inhabitants of Biarritz met in the open +air, on the eighth of May, to the number of one hundred and fifty; +approved of the conduct of the Baillie in rejecting Arnauld, made a +subscription, and gave all power to their lawyers to defend the cause of +the pure race against Etienne Arnauld--"that stranger," who, having +married a girl of Cagot blood, ought also to be expelled from the holy +places. This lawsuit was carried through all the local courts, and ended +by an appeal to the highest court in Paris; where a decision was given +against Basque superstitions; and Etienne Arnauld was thenceforward +entitled to enter the gallery of the church. + +Of course, the inhabitants of Biarritz were all the more ferocious for +having been conquered; and, four years later, a carpenter, named Miguel +Legaret, suspected of Cagot descent, having placed himself in the church +among other people, was dragged out by the abbe and two of the jurets of +the parish. Legaret defended himself with a sharp knife at the time, and +went to law afterwards; the end of which was, that the abbe and his two +accomplices were condemned to a public confession of penitence, to be +uttered while on their knees at the church door, just after high-mass. +They appealed to the parliament of Bourdeaux against this decision, but +met with no better success than the opponents of the miller Arnauld. +Legaret was confirmed in his right of standing where he would in the +parish church. That a living Cagot had equal rights with other men in +the town of Biarritz seemed now ceded to them; but a dead Cagot was a +different thing. The inhabitants of pure blood struggled long and hard +to be interred apart from the abhorred race. The Cagots were equally +persistent in claiming to have a common burying-ground. Again the texts +of the Old Testament were referred to, and the pure blood quoted +triumphantly the precedent of Uzziah the leper (twenty-sixth chapter of +the second book of Chronicles), who was buried in the field of the +Sepulchres of the Kings, not in the sepulchres themselves. The Cagots +pleaded that they were healthy and able-bodied; with no taint of leprosy +near them. They were met by the strong argument so difficult to be +refuted, which I quoted before. Leprosy was of two kinds, perceptible +and imperceptible. If the Cagots were suffering from the latter kind, +who could tell whether they were free from it or not? That decision must +be left to the judgment of others. + +One sturdy Cagot family alone, Belone by name, kept up a lawsuit, +claiming the privilege of common sepulture, for forty-two years; although +the cure of Biarritz had to pay one hundred livres for every Cagot not +interred in the right place. The inhabitants indemnified the curate for +all these fines. + +M. de Romagne, Bishop of Tarbes, who died in seventeen hundred and sixty- +eight, was the first to allow a Cagot to fill any office in the Church. +To be sure, some were so spiritless as to reject office when it was +offered to them, because, by so claiming their equality, they had to pay +the same taxes as other men, instead of the Rancale or pole-tax levied on +the Cagots; the collector of which had also a right to claim a piece of +bread of a certain size for his dog at every Cagot dwelling. + +Even in the present century, it has been necessary in some churches for +the archdeacon of the district, followed by all his clergy, to pass out +of the small door previously appropriated to the Cagots, in order to +mitigate the superstition which, even so lately, made the people refuse +to mingle with them in the house of God. A Cagot once played the +congregation at Larroque a trick suggested by what I have just named. He +slily locked the great parish-door of the church, while the greater part +of the inhabitants were assisting at mass inside; put gravel into the +lock itself, so as to prevent the use of any duplicate key,--and had the +pleasure of seeing the proud pure-blooded people file out with bended +head, through the small low door used by the abhorred Cagots. + +We are naturally shocked at discovering, from facts such as these, the +causeless rancour with which innocent and industrious people were so +recently persecuted. The moral of the history of the accursed race may, +perhaps, be best conveyed in the words of an epitaph on Mrs. Mary Hand, +who lies buried in the churchyard of Stratford-on-Avon:-- + + What faults you saw in me, + Pray strive to shun; + And look at home; there's + Something to be done. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ACCURSED RACE *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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