Part 42 (2/2)

And Raymond and Guilhem retired through the crowd, which shrunk back, appalled, to let them pa.s.s.

The next day Marie de Lignac received a letter, the contents of which were never seen but by her tear-dimmed eyes; nor ever re-read by her after she entered the convent of Marciniac.

The Lord of Artiguelouve, on his death-bed, was a prey to the most bitter repentance: he implored that some priest of more than common sanct.i.ty should hear his last confession; and one was discovered in a holy hermit, who, when he was summoned from his retreat, was found kneeling beside a humble tomb, where he pa.s.sed all his days in prayer, with rigorous fasting and unwearied penance. He obeyed the call of the expiring sinner, and received his last sigh. Thus did the repentant Lord of Artiguelouve meet the forgiveness of his son, Raymond: for it was he that closed his eyes with a blessing, and then returned to his hermitage to weep by the tomb of his father, the Cagot.

I am indebted to M. Baron du Taya's (of Rennes) learned researches and obliging kindness for a few particulars respecting the Cacous of Brittany.

It is thought there that this proscribed race are the descendants of _leprous Jews_, which would at once account for the detestation in which they continued to be held, but for the term _”Chrestaas”_ applied to them, which destroys that supposition: again, it is said that they are descended from original _lepers_, and that diseases are inherent in their blood--though not leprosy, it may be epilepsy: for this reason, the _rope-makers_ of Ploermel were held in abhorrence, and are even now shunned: they are irritated when the term _caqueux_ is applied to them, but it is common to call them _Malandrins_--a word of opprobrium, only less shocking to their ears. They had always their separate burial-ground and chapel; and, till the revolution of 1789, the prejudice existed against them: even now it is not entirely extinct.

Rope-makers, coopers, and _tailors_ are still held in a certain degree of contempt in Brittany, as those of these trades were formerly all looked upon as Cacous.

The Cacous of St. Malo met with some compa.s.sion from Duke Francis II., the father of Anne of Brittany; and also in the time of Francis I., King of France, ordinances were made in their favour; but they were not so fortunate as their brethren of Rome, who, in the sixteenth century, are said to have sold, in one Holy week, rope to the amount of two thousand crowns, to make _disciplines_.

In 1681, a law was pa.s.sed to this effect; ”Seeing that there are no longer any Leprous, _Ladres_, or _Caquins_ at Kerroch, parish of St.

Caradec d'Hennebon, there is in future to be no distinction made in the inhabitants of this village--who formerly had their burial-ground and chapel apart--and all shall be admitted to the benefit of parish a.s.sistance during their lives, and buried in the church after their death. For it is considered that it _was ill and abusively_ ordained by the Bishop of Vannes, in 1633, that the wives of the said inhabitants should not be purified, except in their own chapels; for it is well ascertained that no native of the said village of Kerroch has ever been afflicted with leprosy.”

Notwithstanding this sensible and humane act, the people of Kerroch are not free from the absurd suspicion even yet.

”It would appear,” observes M. Baron du Taya, ”that the Cacous were first a subdivision of lepers, and afterwards, by hereditary _remembrance_ of them, the latter were always the objects of commiseration amongst the professors of religion and chivalry. Thus the first Grand Master of St. Lazare was himself a leper. Several great names occur amongst these Grand Masters: such as Jean de Paris, in 1300; a Bourbon in 1521; and, under Henri IV., a Philibert de Nerestang.”

In 1436 a prohibition was issued against the _Cacosi_ receiving the kiss of peace, and the kiss of the monks, _before men who were whole_; it was not denied them, but they were to be _the last_.

In many places in Brittany the rope-makers work out of the towns near those places where lazar-houses were once established. They were not authorized to place their benches in the lower part of the church at Pontivy till after the revolution in 1789! The villagers still look upon certain rope-makers, tailors, and coopers, as possessing _an evil eye_, and are in the habit of concealing their _thumbs_ under the rest of their fingers,[51] and p.r.o.nouncing the word _argaret_ as a counter-spell: this word is unintelligible even to the Bas-Bretons themselves. The prejudice still exists in Finisterre against the Cacous: the village of Lannistin is one of their abodes. The Cagot girls of Bearn are said never to be able to draw water from a brook or well without spilling half of it: so that their houses are always dirty, and themselves thirsty. Probably the same misfortune exists in Brittany, for there is little cleanliness to be found there.

[Footnote 51: This practice is similar to that of the Neapolitans, who wear a little hand in coral (_gettatura_) as a preservative against the evil eye.]

Perhaps, after all, the most probable conjecture as to the origin of these unhappy Cagots is, that they were persons _suspected of witchcraft_, and banished in the first instance from society, to which traditional prejudice prevented their return; and, though the cause of their banishment was no longer remembered, the abhorrence they had once inspired did not wear out with ages. The supposition of their having been _the first Christians_, persecuted and contemned, and never regaining the world's good opinion, seems a notion difficult to adopt, except that the first Christians were suspected of sorcery and communication with evil spirits. ”He casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils.” If such were, indeed, the case, what a lesson for prejudice and superst.i.tion, that the descendants of the earliest converts should be persecuted by their Christian brethren!

The Vallee d'Aspe, where the scene of the preceding story is laid, is one of the most picturesque of Bearn, and the customs of its people remarkable.

The Pic d'Anie, whose solemn height rises above the village of Lescun, is regarded by the Aspois as the sojourn of a malignant deity. From thence come the fearful storms which desolate the country, and no inhabitant of the village will dare to climb the ascent: it is looked upon as a piece of presumption to attempt it; for it is believed that the Jin of the mountain, called the Yona Gorri, or flame-coloured spirit, has there fixed his solitary abode, and has his garden on the summit, which he will not allow to be visited by strangers. Certain evil spirits have occasionally been seen in his company, each holding a lighted torch and dressed in s.h.i.+ning scarlet habiliments: they thus surround the chief, and dance round him to the music of an unearthly instrument, like a drum. Loups-garoux, and sorcerers mounted on dragons and other animals, may be seen in the air, wending their way towards Anic, as far as from Jurancon, Gan, and St. Faust.

At Escout is a fairy oak, beneath which, whoever places an empty vase, having belief, will find it, after a short period, when he returns, full of gold and silver: there are known to exist persons in the Vallee d'Aspe whose fortune had no other source.

There is a famous rock at the entrance of the valley, the object of attraction to all females who desire to become mothers. Many of the superst.i.tions are similar to those in the Landes where the belief in the power of the demon is generally received. The _Homme Noir_--a fearful spirit with large black wings--may frequently be seen perched on the summit of the highest peaks, shaking from his pinions showers of hail, which break the early flowers and crush the rising corn.

There are persons, even now--though they are rarer than in the time of that acute discoverer, De Lancre--who are believed to deserve the name of _Poudoueros, Hantaumos, Brouchos, Mahoumos_, for they are votaries of the evil one, and many spells are requisite to avoid their ”witch knots,” and ”combs of care,” &c.

Presages can be drawn from the croak of a magpie, from the rush of waters, and the howling of dogs. If a flower is seen to expand on a barren rock, or in a place where there is no other vegetation, it is looked upon as an augury of an abundant harvest throughout the country.

But if a tree spreads its branches over the roof of a house it announces all sorts of misfortunes: the sons of that house will perish in a foreign land: the lovers of those daughters will be faithless: the parents will be abandoned by their children, and die in aged dest.i.tution.

If a single rose is left

”----Blooming alone, Its lovely companions all faded and gone;”

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