Hemp is mentioned as having been used in making baskets, where it probably served as weft strands.[156] Hemp cordage was also used to sew together a certain kind of house covering mat.[157] And it was used, along with grasses for woven capes.[158] Mantles were also woven out of turkey feathers, or the feathers of other birds, and cordage.[159] The feathers were probably twisted in among the hemp strands.[160] Such weaving was done without looms. Matting was produced by two basic techniques, by sewing or by weaving the component elements together. In sewn mats, flag leaves were sewed together with wild hemp thread, using a bone needle.[161] Woven mats were plaited from bulrushes.[162] These latter were used to line the interior of the house, to sit upon, and for spreading out food to dry.[163] Matting was an item that came in for extensive use in the daily lives of the Wampanoags. Besides being a building material, it was used to line storage pits; it also lined or covered their graves. Basketry was another important item made by the Wampanoags, although their use of basketry was not as extensive as in certain other North American Indian groups. Basketry everywhere serves what is basically a container function, and among the Wampanoags there were available pottery, birch bark boxes, pouches of leather, wooden dishes, and later the metal pots and kettles brought by Europeans—all of which could carry out the job of holding something. Baskets were made in a number of sizes and shapes, of several different materials, and of varying fineness depending upon the purpose to be served.[164] There were two techniques for weaving baskets, twining and plaiting, though there were probably enough variations upon these basic techniques that not all baskets looked alike to the casual observer. Twined basketry was the more common type at the time that the Europeans arrived in New England. The baskets of “Hempe and Rushes” that Wood describes were probably made by this technique.[165] The manufacture of twined basketry involves wrapping a horizontal weft element, the hemp in this case, around what is usually a more rigid warp, the bulrushes. The basketry made by the plaited technique is what is meant by the term “splint basketry”. In this case, both warp and weft are equally rigid “splints” and are combined by placing each alternately over the other so that, in the most basic pattern, a checkerboard effect results. Basketry made by this technique became more popular during the historic period, and eventually this was the only type made by the Indians in the New England area. At the time New England was being colonized, the main use of splint basketry was in the processing of corn. Square sieves for sifting corn meal were made by the plaiting technique, with varying grades of mesh to sort out ground and hulled corn for various uses.[166] Collecting baskets for harvesting corn were also made by this technique. The basket was worn strapped to the