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,[5] 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 they 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 environments were precisely those best calculated to develop a character naturally strong. He dwelt in a land which, if not literally flowing with milk and honey, abounded with everything needful to supply the simple wants of savage life, and thus he escaped those demoralizing influences which attend the struggle for mere existence. The proximity of a powerful enemy rendered him, cautious, alert, and vigilant. His position as the chief of a considerable confederacy invested him with dignity, and called into activity all those statesman-like qualities for which he was so justly famed. Winslow describes him as “grave of countenance, spare of speech,” and this description tallies exactly with our ideal of the man. General Fessenden remarks: “This chief has never had full justice done to his character.” Certainly it was no ordinary man who, conquered himself, still retained the respect and allegiance of several clans, differing in thought, mode of life, and interests. It was no ordinary man who, undaunted by misfortune, endured the yoke patiently till the opportunity to throw it off presented itself, and then quietly taking advantage of the auspicious moment accomplished the liberation of himself and his people from a servitude more bitter than death itself.