CAGOTS, a people found in the Basque provinces, Béarn, and Gascony. During the Middle Ages they were popularly looked upon as crétins, lepers, heretics, and even as cannibals. Entirely excluded from all political and social rights, they were not even allowed to enter a church but by a special door, or to remain except in a part where they were carefully secluded from the rest of the worshippers. To partake of the mass was never permitted them. 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. The only 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. Upon the last peculiarity great stress is laid by anthropologists, and it is held to point to a Gothic origin. The common opinion of authorities is that this people are descendants of the Visigoths, and Μ. Michel derives the name from caas (dog) and Goth. But opposed to this etymology is the fact that the word cagot is first found in the for of Béarn not earlier than 1551, while the older MSS. call these peoples Chrétiens, or Chrestiaas, a term which, on this hypothesis, would have its origin from the fact that these Visigoths, left behind in Aquitaine, were Christians, while the Gascons were still Pagans. ...