( PDF ) An Accursed Race

Download PDF

ads:

An Accursed Race

Elizabeth Gaskell

The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Accursed Race, by Elizabeth Gaskell

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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.net

Title: An Accursed Race

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Release Date: May 17, 2005 [eBook #2531]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ACCURSED RACE***

Transcribed from the 1896 Smith, Elder and Co. "From Lizzie Leigh and

Other Tales" edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk. Proofed

by Jennifer Lee, Alev Akman and Andy Wallace.

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,

ads:

Livros Grátis

http://www.livrosgratis.com.br

Milhares de livros grátis para download.

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 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-

ads:

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 isles 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 Lourbes, 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 Lourbes.

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 Lourbes

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 leaf 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***

******* This file should be named 2531.txt or 2531.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/3/2531

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions

will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions 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. Project

Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you

charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you

do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the

rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose

such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and

research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do

practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is

subject to the trademark license, especially commercial

redistribution.

*** START: FULL LICENSE ***

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free

distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work

(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project

Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project

Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at

http://gutenberg.net/license).

Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm

electronic works

1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm

electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to

and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property

(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all

the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy

all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.

If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project

Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the

terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or

entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be

used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who

agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few

things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works

even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See

paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project

Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement

and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic

works. See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"

or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project

Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the

collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an

individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are

located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from

copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative

works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg

are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project

Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by

freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of

this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with

the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by

keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project

Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern

what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in

a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check

the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement

before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or

creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project

Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning

the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United

States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate

access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently

whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the

phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project

Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,

copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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.net

1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived

from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is

posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied

and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees

or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work

with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the

work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1

through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the

Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or

1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted

with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution

must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional

terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked

to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the

permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm

License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this

work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this

electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without

prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with

active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project

Gutenberg-tm License.

1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,

compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any

word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or

distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than

"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version

posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net),

you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a

copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon

request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other

form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm

License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,

performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works

unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing

access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided

that

- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from

the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method

you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is

owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he

has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the

Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments

must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you

prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax

returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and

sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the

address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to

the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."

- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies

you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he

does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm

License. You must require such a user to return or

destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium

and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of

Project Gutenberg-tm works.

- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any

money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the

electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days

of receipt of the work.

- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free

distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.

1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm

electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set

forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from

both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael

Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the

Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable

effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread

public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm

collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic

works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain

"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or

corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual

property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a

computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by

your equipment.

1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right

of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project

Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project

Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project

Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all

liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal

fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT

LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE

PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE

TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE

LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR

INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH

DAMAGE.

1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a

defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can

receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a

written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you

received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with

your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with

the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a

refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity

providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to

receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy

is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further

opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth

in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER

WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO

WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied

warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.

If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the

law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be

interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by

the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any

provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.

1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the

trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone

providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance

with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,

promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,

harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,

that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do

or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm

work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any

Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.

Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm

Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of

electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers

including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists

because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from

people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the

assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's

goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will

remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project

Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure

and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.

To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4

and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.net/fundraising/pglaf.

Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive

Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit

501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the

state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal

Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification

number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg

Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent

permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.

The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.

Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered

throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at

809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email

[email protected]. Email contact links and up to date contact

information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official

page at http://www.gutenberg.net/about/contact

For additional contact information:

Dr. Gregory B. Newby

Chief Executive and Director

[email protected]g

Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg

Literary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide

spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of

increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be

freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest

array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations

($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt

status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating

charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United

States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a

considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up

with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations

where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To

SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any

particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.net/fundraising/donate

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we

have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition

against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who

approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make

any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from

outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation

methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other

ways including including checks, online payments and credit card

donations. To donate, please visit:

http://www.gutenberg.net/fundraising/donate

Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic

works.

Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm

concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared

with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project

Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.

Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed

editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.

unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily

keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:

http://www.gutenberg.net

This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,

including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary

Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to

subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.

Livros Grátis
( http://www.livrosgratis.com.br )
 
Milhares de Livros para Download:
 
Baixar livros de Administração
Baixar livros de Agronomia
Baixar livros de Arquitetura
Baixar livros de Artes
Baixar livros de Astronomia
Baixar livros de Biologia Geral
Baixar livros de Ciência da Computação
Baixar livros de Ciência da Informação
Baixar livros de Ciência Política
Baixar livros de Ciências da Saúde
Baixar livros de Comunicação
Baixar livros do Conselho Nacional de Educação - CNE
Baixar livros de Defesa civil
Baixar livros de Direito
Baixar livros de Direitos humanos
Baixar livros de Economia
Baixar livros de Economia Doméstica
Baixar livros de Educação
Baixar livros de Educação - Trânsito
Baixar livros de Educação Física
Baixar livros de Engenharia Aeroespacial
Baixar livros de Farmácia
Baixar livros de Filosofia
Baixar livros de Física
Baixar livros de Geociências
Baixar livros de Geografia
Baixar livros de História
Baixar livros de Línguas

Baixar livros de Literatura
Baixar livros de Literatura de Cordel
Baixar livros de Literatura Infantil
Baixar livros de Matemática
Baixar livros de Medicina
Baixar livros de Medicina Veterinária
Baixar livros de Meio Ambiente
Baixar livros de Meteorologia
Baixar Monografias e TCC
Baixar livros Multidisciplinar
Baixar livros de Música
Baixar livros de Psicologia
Baixar livros de Química
Baixar livros de Saúde Coletiva
Baixar livros de Serviço Social
Baixar livros de Sociologia
Baixar livros de Teologia
Baixar livros de Trabalho
Baixar livros de Turismo
 
 