In Emma Peel’s first Avengers episode, she refers to a “pot of woad,” and from the context I gather it is proverbial for “going native.”
In my researches so far, I’ve learned that woad is a plant which can be processed to make a blue dye, much like indigo, and said blue dye was used by antique Celts to paint their bodies - but I haven’t found the source of the phrase “pot of woad.” I’ve searched Bartlett’s, the Bible (KJV) and the works of Shakespeare with no luck. Does anyone know where it comes from?
It’s admirable that you did your own research before posting this question. But I’m curious why you looked for a reference to a Celtic custom in the Bible.
But on the Internet you can find anything. As proof I offer The Woad Page at http://www.net-link.net/~rowan/crafts/woad/woadpage.html . This tells you how to grow and make your own pot of woad. You can then use it unitl you’re, well, blue in the face.
They would use the woad, which has some antiseptic and astringent properties, as a body paint for battle. Thus the Celts were woad warriors.
Sometimes one member of the warband would use more than his share of the woad. He would have been reviled as a “woad hog.”
Cowards and non-combatants would apply their body paint in a distinctive cruciform pattern, leading to the ancient observation of “the chicken crossing the woad.”
Because so manny of the young men of a tribe would not survive their battles, the traditional lamentation began “Oh, woad is me…”
This will all be chronicled in my upcoming politically neutral book The Muddle of the Woad.
