in antiquity, the priests of the goddess Cybele, who were eunuchs, 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 caltrate himself; after this, he ran about the 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.