You asked for it, mate.

THE ORIGINS OF CERTAIN FOLK DANCE AND OTHER RITUALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES
Copied from the papers of Cecil Blunt. EFDSS & bar (fully licensed)

In the year 55BC the Romans invaded Kent and found the natives were rather against being incorporated into Europe, and the Roman Empire in particular. It was their own fault, for had they invaded in August rather than during the May festivities, then things might well have been different. It would have been a Bank Holiday for one thing, so the local Celts would be used to hordes of tourists descending on the seaside towns of Thanet, and paid them no notice. But to interrupt the May Fertility Rites was quite another matter!
Fighting broke out, and the Romans were beaten off, coming back one year later for the replay, finally returning to stay in 43BC.
Some description of the May festivities that were so rudely interrupted is worthy of note.
The men of the area would go out into the surrounding woodland and, in order to show their prowess at stalking & hunting (most necessary attributes in those days) they would daub dye between the antlers of deer, each individual having his own colour, and so prove to the local maidens his own expertise.
The annual *rut* was in progress at this time, making the whole thing even more dangerous. A rutting seven pointer is no animal to be interfered with!
The maidens might show special favour to their own chosen man by mixing the dye for him, and some of them went even further by actually taking part in the daubing, or at least, attempting to distract the deer while their man carried out the daub.
The dye was soaked into a strip of cloth called a KURR, which was attached to a stick, or CHEEVE, so the man could daub the deer at a slight distance, but never the less a chap had to get very close in order to get a good daub!
Many words and expressions in the English language have come down to us from these activities, the term
*deer* to refer to a loved one for instance, the expression *she is dyeing for it* is another.
Place names derived from the locations involved are to be found in various parts of the country, Chevening, Dauber (Dover). Rekurrver (Reculver), Hartlip, Headcorn and of course Hartley, all in Kent.
Where the menfolk favoured other animals than deer, similar names are to be found; Swanley and Swanscombe for instance, or Oxted, Bearsted and Horsemonden. The whole of the island of Sheppey had another, altogether more unsavoury practise involving sheep, which still continues to this day, as evidenced by the numbers of sheep seen with coloured markings on their flanks.
The Romans attempted to outdo the locals at their own game, and so prove that they were better than the Celts, but the clattering of their armour and the ridiculously short swords used instead of Cheeves, made this impossible. When they returned in 43BC they introduced new rules in order to even things up.
The Britons would have to wear clanking bits of tin, or even bells, round their legs. They would also have to wear bright clothes instead of the browns and greens worn formerly. The Celts settled for white, as they could then wear their cricket garb. The conditions may have been more equal, but the event still went in favour of our chaps, the Romans took umbridge and banned the thing altogether. It still continued in secret, but penalties for offenders were high. Many communities fled the district, taking their customs with them, becoming absorbed in the rites and rituals of the new settled area, or disappearing completely.
The west was the most common direction of flight, and today some communities in the Cotswold region still carry on with a slightly watered down version of these fertility rites, calling it *Morris Dancing*, and they still use Hand-Kurr-Cheeves for the purpose.
Those who went further afield to the Welsh border district, blacked their faces to remain in disguise from the Roman authorities, while those who travelled as far as Yorkshire and Durham took to using swords instead of cheeves to better protect themselves from Roman raiders. The men of Yorkshire having long swords, while the Durham lads had the shorter Roman pattern, which at first they used to rap the deer smartly between the eyes, but fatalities among the animals made them change to a lighter, more flexible design, known as a *rapper sword*. East Anglians denied the practise of daubing altogether, going so far as to wear damn great hob-nailed boots & cavort about with hands behind their backs to prove that they had nothing to do with it! The North-Westerners used knotted ropes, and chamouflaged themselves with flowers. This chamouflage was so good that they eventually had to be accompanied by damn great brass bands, just so you knew they were about.
In isolated parts of Kent the daubing went on in secret for many hundreds of years. It was so secret that even the animal to be daubed was covered in cloth so it wouldn't see what was occurring, and the Hooden Horse of Kent has gone down in legend.
This statement is true, dammit. Would I lie to you?