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CAGOTS

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 947 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CAGOTS , a See also:

people found in the . Basque provinces, See also:Beam, See also:Gascony and See also:Brittany. The earliest mention of them is in 1288, when they appear to have been called Christiens or Christianos. In the 16th See also:century they had many names, Cagots, Gahets, Gafets in See also:France; Agotes, Gafos in See also:Spain; and Cacons, Cahets, Caqueux and Caquins in Brittany. During the See also:middle ages they were popularly looked upon as cretins, lepers, heretics and even as cannibals. They were shunned and hated; were allotted See also:separate quarters in towns, called cagoteries, and lived in wretched huts in the See also:country distinct from the villages. Excluded from all See also:political and social rights, they were only allowed to enter a See also:church by a See also:special See also:door, and during the service a See also:rail separated them from the other worshippers. Either they were altogether forbidden to partake of the See also:sacrament, or the See also:holy See also:wafer was handed to them on the end of a stick, while a receptacle for holy See also:water was reserved for their exclusive use. They were compelled to See also:wear a distinctive See also:dress, to which, in some places, was attached the See also:foot of a See also:goose or See also:duck (whence they were sometimes called Canards). And so pestilential was their See also:touch considered that it was a See also:crime for them to walk the See also:common road barefooted. Theonly trades allowed them were those of See also:butcher and See also:carpenter, and their See also:ordinary occupation was See also:wood-cutting. Their See also:language is merely a corrupt See also:form of that spoken around them; but a See also:Teutonic origin seems to be indicated by their See also:fair complexions and See also:blue eyes.

Their crania have a normal development; their cheek-bones are high; their noses prominent, with large nostrils; their lips straight; and they are marked by the See also:

absence of the auricular lobules. The origin of the Cagots is undecided. See also:Littre defines them as " a people of the See also:Pyrenees affected with a See also:kind of See also:cretinism." It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths, and See also:Michael derives the name from carts (See also:dog) and Goth. But opposed to this See also:etymology is the fact that the word cage' is first found in the for of Beam not earlier than 1551. See also:Marca, in his Histoire de Beam, holds that the word signifies " hunters of the Goths," and that the Cagots are descendants of the See also:Saracens. Others made them descendants of the Albigenses. The old See also:MSS. See also:call them Chretiens or Chrestiaas,and from this it has been argued that they were Visigoths who originally lived as Christians among the Gascon pagans. A far more probable explanation of their name " Chretiens " is to be found in the fact that in See also:medieval times all lepers were known as pauperes Christi, and that, Goths or not, these Cagots were affected in the middle ages with a particular form of leprosy or a See also:condition resembling it. Thus would arise the confusion between Christians and Cretins. To-See also:day their descendants are not more subject to See also:goitre and cretinism than those dwelling around them, and are recognized by tradition and not by features or See also:physical degeneracy. It was not until the See also:French Revolution that any steps were taken to ameliorate their See also:lot, but to-day they no longer form a class, but have been practically lost sight of in the See also:general peasantry. See Francisque See also:Michel, Histoire See also:des races maudites de France et d'Espagne (See also:Paris, 1846) ; See also:Abbe Venuti, Recherches sur See also:les Cahets de See also:Bordeaux (1754) ; Bulletins de la societe anthropologique (1861, 1867, 1868, 1871) ; Annales medico-psychologiques (See also:Jan.

1867) ; Lagneau, Questionnaire sur l'ethnologie de la France; See also:

Paul See also:Raymond, Mceurs bearnaises (See also:Pau, 1872) ; V. de Rochas, Les Parias de France el d'Espagne (Cagots et Bohemiens) (Paris, 1877) ; J. Hack See also:Tuke, Jour. Anthropological See also:Institute (vol. ix., I88o).

End of Article: CAGOTS

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