HERB - More on Woad

[Christine Seelye-King]

While cruising through a book I have of plates from "Pliny the Elder -
Historia Naturalis", by Joyce Irene Whalley, a Victoria and Albert Museum
publication, (Historia Naturalis having been written in the 1st Century AD),
I found a reference to woad that I thought would be good to add to the
recent discussion.  In it, the author quotes Pliny on Woad.  The passage
goes:

	"Book XXII. Pliny begins this book with a short piece on dyes, and he
mentions in particular glastum(woad): 'with it the wives of the Britons and
their daughters-in-law, stain all the body, and at certain religious
ceremonies march along naked.'"
	That's the first time I've read anything remotely like a period description
of the use of woad as a body paint.  The one main source we usually read
about is Julius Ceasar's account, and he just saw them across the river, and
his writings are ambiguous enough to be uncertain as to whether he meant (or
could determine) that they were tatooed or had smeared themselves with blue
mud.
	So, anyway, I had to share.  It was not what I was looking for, but
serendipity is fun that way!
Christianna

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