Page:Massasoit's town Sowams in Pokanoket, its history, legends and traditions (IA massasoitstownso00bake).pdf/13

Rh (Little Compton), Namasket (Middleborough), Nobsquasset (Yarmouth), Monamoit (Chatham), Nauset (Eastham), Patuxet (Plymouth), and other places, together with the headmen of some of the Nipmuc nation, were tributary to him. Undoubtedly some of these chiefs were allied to Massasoit by ties of consanguinity or mutual interests; others, probably, rendered homage as conquered to conqueror.

Like the Narragansetts, the Wampanoags were considerably advanced in civilization. They built permanent villages, and cultivated corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. They manufactured cooking utensils of stone and clay, and rude implements for domestic and war-like purposes from shells, stone, and bone. They prepared the greater part of their food by the aid of fire and their cookery was, by no means, unpalatable. The famed Rhode Island Johnny cake and still more famous Rhode Island clam bake each claim an Indian origin. They understood how to dress birch and chestnut bark which they used for covering their wigwams, and they constructed canoes by hollowing out the trunks of large trees. Of rushes and grasses they wove mats and baskets, and the}' fashioned moccasins, leggings, and other articles of apparel from the skins of wild beasts. They were very accurate in their observations of the weather, and spent much time in studying the heavens, being familiar with the motions of the stars, and having names for many of the constellations. In common with the other native tribes of North America, they worshipped various gods, peopling earth, air, sky, and sea with deities; yet they acknowledged one supreme being, and believed in the immortality of the soul.

It is obvious that Massasoit possessed mental endowments of no mean order, and it is equally obvious that his environ-