EUNUCH, a castrated human male. From remote antiquity among the Orientals, as also at a later period in Greece, eunuchs were employed to take charge of the women, or generally as chamberlains. Their confidential position in the harems of princes frequently enabled them to exercise an important influence over their royal masters, and even to raise themselves to stations of great trust and power (see HAREM). Hence the term eunuch came to be applied in Egypt to any court officer, whether a castrates or not. The common idea that eunuchs are necessarily deficient in courage and in intellectual vigour is amply refuted by history. Herodotus states that in Persia they were especially prized for their fidelity; and they were frequently promoted to the highest offices. The capacity of eunuchs for public affairs is strikingly illustrated by the histories of Persia, India and China; and considerable power was exercised by the eunuchs under the later Roman emperors. The hideous trade of castrat ing boys to be sold as eunuchs for Muslim harems has continued to modern times, the principal district whence they are taken being north-central Africa (Bagirmi, etc.). The Italian practice of castrating boys in order to train them as adult soprano singers ended with the accession of Pope Leo XIII. Voluntary eunuchs who emasculated themselves, or caused the operation to be per formed on them, for the avoidance of sexual sin or temptation, appeared in early Christian ages, its votaries acting on the texts Matt. xix. 12, V. 28-30. Origen's case is the most celebrated example, and by the 3rd century there had arisen a sect of eunuchs, of whom Augustine says (De haeres. c. 37), "Valesii et seipsos castrant et hospites suos, hoc modo existimantes Deo se debere servire." (The Valesii castrate themselves and their guests, thinking thereby to serve God.) A sect of the kind exists in Russia, whose practice is expressed in their name of Skopzi.