History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

18 History of Swansea
for a cellar at Drownville to exhume an oven, used for baking
clams, about eighteen inches below the surface of the soil.
The coals and shells on the saucer-shaped oven of round stones
were evidences of aboriginal use and customs.
The women cultivated the crops for the most part and
were the burden bearers of the fish and game taken by the men.
"A husband, " says Williams, "will leave a deer to be eaten by
the wolves rather than impose the load on his own shoulders.
The mothers carry about their infant pappooses, wrapped in
a beaver skin and tied to a board two feet long and one foot
broad, with its feet hauled up to its back. The mother carries
about with her, the pappoose when only three or four days old,
even when she goes to the clam beds and paddles in the cold
water for clams. It is evident that in their wild state, no
large number of them could subsist long together, because
game on which they principally lived, was soon exhausted, and
hunger compelled them to scatter. This state of existence
always forced them to live in small clans or famihes. Venison
and fish were dried and smoked for winter's supplies. In
providing the food for the household, the labor was divided
quite unequally. It was manly for an Indian to hunt and fish,
but the cultivation of the fields and gardens was wholly
woman's work, as was the digging of clams and the procuring of
all other shell fish. The cooking was also woman's perogative,
so that with the Indian the old couplet was not wholly inapt:
^* Man's work is from sun to sun;
Woman's work is never done. "
The Plymouth settlers described the houses of the
Indians as follows : " They are made round, like an arbor, with
long, young sapHngs stuck in the ground and bended over,
covered down to the ground with thick and well wrought mats.
The door, about a yard high, is make of a suspended mat. An
aperture at the top served for a chimney, which is also provided
with a covering of a mat to retain the warmth. In the
middle of the room are four little crotches set in the ground
supporting cross sticks, on which are hung whatever they have
to roast. Around the fire are laid the mats that serve for beds.
The frame of poles is double matted; those within being
fairer."
These frail houses were easily transported with their
simple furnishings from place to place, wherever their business,
hunting, fishing, or comfort might lead them. Their
houses were removed to sheltered valleys or to dense swamps
in the winter, and in the summer were pitched in the vicinity