GALLI, in antiquity, the priests of the goddess Cybele. They were cunuchs; and took their name from Gallus, a river in Phrygia.
When a youth was to be initiated into this order, the custom was to throw off his cloaths, to run crying aloud into the midst of the troop, and then drawing a sword to castrate himself: after this, he ran about the streets,
Gallican streets, carrying in his hands the marks of his mutilation; which he was to throw into a house, and in that house to put on a woman's dress.
Gallican, any thing belonging to France; thus the term Gallican church denotes the church of France, or the assembly of the clergy of that kingdom.