137. _Cagots._--Can any of your readers give me any information about
the Cagots in the south of France, whose history has been written by
Mons. Michel, in a work entitled _Sur les Races Maudits_? There seems to
be great doubt about their origin; are they remnants either of the
Saracens or the Paulicians? They still, I am told, exist in the deep
Pyrenean vallies, and are a most degraded race. Is there any analogy
between them and the Cretins of the Alps, with the difference, that in
the Alps Cretinism is regarded with kindness, in the Pyrenees with
scorn? If so, does this point to the existence of a Celtic and
non-Celtic element in the races inhabiting the respective mountain
chains? idiotcy being reverenced especially among the Celtic races.
Then, as before the first French revolution, the Cagots had a
particular place and door set apart for them in the churches. Does not
this look like their being Paulicians forced into orthodoxy, or equally,
perhaps, Saracen Christians, similar to the Jew Christians of Spain?