AERUSCATORES, in antiquity, a kind of strolling beggars, not unlike gypcies, who drew money from the credulous by fortune-telling, &c. It was also a denomination given to gripping exactors, or collectors of the revenue. The Galli, or priests of Cybele, were called arufatores magnæ matris, and μετρυγύται, on account of their begging or collecting alms in the streets; to which end they had little bells whereby to draw peoples attention to them, much like some orders of mendicants abroad.