CAGOTS  , a

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

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

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

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