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 "Chrestaàs" 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 compassion 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 passed 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 assistance 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,[50] and pronouncing 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 Béarn 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.