The Cagots of the Pyrenees

The natives of the Pyrenees shake their heads when asked, Who are the Cagots? And well they may, for who will ever solve the mystery of that now almost vanished race of the Pyrenees? Like the Pariahs of the East, they were despised and rejected, an accursed race. They were of fair complexion, light hair, and blue eyes; for this reason they are now supposed to have been a remnant of the Visi, or west, Goths, and therefore of Teutonic origin. But, as another instance of man's inhumanity to man, the Cagots were for centuries an outcast people upon four suppositions: as descendants of lepers, of Jews, of Egyptians, or of Moors. They were not allowed citizenship; they had to wear a distinct dress; to live apart from the races in the Pyre-ness, and to creep through a side door into a church, where they might hear the blessed Gospel preached, but were hidden from the very sight of Christian men and women. The French Revolution, with its doctrine of "Freedom and Equality," removed the political and civil restrictions imposed upon this unfortunate people, but as a separate tribe they have now almost disappeared. Yet the greatest insult that can even now be offered a Pyrenean is to call him a Cagot, or to infer that his blood had once a taint of that despised race.