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,
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
service 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 brilled 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, and half to the
baillie, or chief magistrate of the commune.
The poor beasts were limited as to the amount
of common land 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 trade,
he was bidden by all the municipal laws to
stand by and remember his rude old state.
In all towns and villages in 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 sun-rise, or to be found after
sun-set within the walls of the town. But
still, as the Cagots were good-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 seem by anyone 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 bye-place. If
they were thirsty during the day which they
passed in these 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, to drink of any other
water, was forbidden to the Cagoterie.  A
Cagot woman having to make purchases, in
the town, was liable to be flogged out of it