... small ash, white oak, or other suitable trees, were cut in the spring. The logs were sometimes soaked in water, although this was not always necessary. They were then peeled and beaten with wooden mauls until the annual growth layers were separated one from another. These were split into various widths and assorted, strips of uniform size being bound together in bunches or coils.[168]
Baskets were also used to carry the parched corn meal of a traveler (in place of the deerskin pouch).[169] Large baskets, an alternative to bags of hemp, were used to store food in the underground storage pits.[170] One kind of arrow quiver was made of basketry.[171] When moving from place to place during the year, basketry and soft woven bags seem likely to have been the containers in which the Wampanoags carried their baggage.[172]
Very few decorated baskets are known to have survived from this period. The reports of early observers note that baskets were decorated in various colors.[173] A basket seen by the Pilgrims is described as being “... curiously wrought in black and white in pretty works....”[174] But from such scant information it is possible to generalize about decorative style.[175]
CLOTHING
The basic dress for both men and women was the breech clout—a length of deerskin that was looped over a belt in back, passed between the legs, and looped over a belt again in front.[176] In post-contact times this garment was sometimes made of cloth.[177] The breech clout was worn at all times by adults.[178] Female children wore such a garment or its equivalent from early infancy; male children went naked until they were ten or twelve years old.[179]
The Wampanoags did not wear a great deal of additional clothing. For additional protection from insects and cold, the Indians usually wore a thick coating of animal or vegetable fat.[180] The Wampanoags might put on leggings when traveling through scratchy undergrowth. Leggings consisted of two tubes of deerskin, extending from ankle to groin, fastened into the moccasin at the lower end and held up by attaching them to the belt.[181] Leggings were worn by both sexes; those worn by the women may have been somewhat shorter.[182] Leggings were also worn as a protection against the cold, especially by the older people.[183]
Skin capes were a common item of clothing for both sexes.[184] Women’s capes, about twice as long as those worn by men, are reported to have hung down behind like a train.[185] Capes for summer wear were of deerskin—either worn hair side out or made of de-haired skins. For winter wear the hair was left on and turned to the inside.[186] The skins of Beaver, otter, racoon, bear, and fox—the smaller ones being sewed together—were also used for winter mantles.[187] Mantles made of turkey feathers were mentioned previously.[188]
Champlain reported that Indians on Cape Cod (probably Nauset) wore capes woven of grass and hemp fibers.[189] These extended to the thighs and may have been worn in summer as a protection against insects. Or, perhaps they were for special occasions. One fragment of such a mantle, excavated along with a burial near Manchester, Massachusetts, was made of twilled bast fiber.[190] The lower edge of the garment was fringed.[191]
The skin mantle was usually worn passed under the right arm, brought over the left shoulder, and the two ends fastened.[192] For traveling or other activity the garment was bound tight against the body with a belt.[193] In very cold weather the exposed arm was covered with a detachable fur sleeve which was tied on.[194] In the absence of the sleeve, the mantle might be allowed to hang loose, and the wearer alternately cover whichever shoulder was exposed to the wind as he walked.[195]
Both men and women wore moccasins. The preferred material for these was moose hide, but in its absence, deerskin served.[196] Everyone went barefoot in the summer, but they usually carried their moccasins slung on their backs in case of having to travel over very rough ground.[197]