• AN OUTCAST RACE IN THE PYRENEES. 547 



tives of the Cagots living outside of the Pyrenees, who are variously 

 called, according to the place, Cahets, Caqucux, Caquins, Cacoas, Col- 

 librets, etc., and are spread to Lower Poitou, in Brittany and Marne, 

 and far down into Spain. 



The race of the Cagots was for hundreds of years superstitiously 

 avoided by the other inhabitants of the country, despised, persecuted, 

 repelled, treated as if abandoned and outcast, and restricted in all 

 legal and social rights. Dark sujjerstition and the prejudice of ear- 

 lier times attributed to them a constant leprosy ; they were supposed 

 to have a peculiar repulsive exhalation, to be destitute of earlaps, 

 to be color-blind, to see in the night like cats and owls, and were 

 accused of pretended, likewise disgraceful offenses. They were treat- 

 ed as feeble beings, afflicted with contagious disease and moral impuri- 

 ties, who should not be touched, and with whom as little business in- 

 tercourse should be had as possible. Down to the seventeenth century 

 they w^ere thus treated. If they lived in the towns, they were confined 

 to a particular quarter in which the other citizens rarely came; if they 

 came out of their quarter, they were obliged to wear a piece of red 

 cloth on some conspicuous part of their dress, so that others might 

 recognize them and keep away from them. On the plains they dwelt 

 for the most part in miserable huts, which were separated from the 

 tov/n by a wood or by running water. In the church they were sepa- 

 rated from the rest of the congregation by a wooden partition, and 

 had to go in and out by a separate door. Holy water, the commun- 

 ion, and the other blessings of religion were forbidden them, and they 

 could take part in the processions -only under particular conditions; and 

 the corpses of their dead were buried, without bells and music, in a sepa- 

 rate burial-ground, or in a separate corner of the common cemetery. 



The same kind of contempt and ill-treatment was measured out to 

 the relatives of this race in other Pyrenean provinces, where they were 

 formerly numerous, but have now nearly died out in consequence of 

 persecutions. The Agotes, as they were there called, were formerly 

 very numerous in the Basque provinces, and they can still occasionally 

 be found sprinkled among tlie people. They were there equally de- 

 spised and regarded as an unclean race, excluded from association 

 with the rest of the people, compelled to seek abodes in caves, secluded 

 hamlets, and miserable huts ; they could fill no office ; could not sit at 

 table with other persons, or drink out of the same cup for fear that 

 they would communicate some poison or impurity to the dish ; and 

 were not allowed to go into the church to receive their portion of the 

 mass, but had to wait at the door till the priest brought it out to them. 

 Marriage wuth them was as disgraceful as if it were with Moors, gyp- 

 sies, or other non-Christians ; and they were supposed to communicate 

 disease and horrible ills to whoever touched them. The Cahets in 

 Guienne were the objects of similar reproach and adverse regulations. 



The reason of the superstitious prejudice and hatred against this peo- 



