Ideas About Nature and Man
From childhood the Wampanoags learned to make certain observations of the stars, planets, and of the seasons and weather.486 The time of day was measured by the height of the sun in the day and by the moon and stars at night.487 Longer spans of time were kept account of in terms of the moon and of “summers” and “winters”.488 Reckoning according to the moon, they had thirteen months, each with its own name.489 Many of the stars were named; the north star was called Maske, meaning “bear”.490 Winds were named according to their direction; of these there were seven to nine.491 By observing the winds and the sky the Wampanoags made fairly accurate weather predictions.492