Also watape, watapeh. [Narragansett Indian wattap ‘a root of tree’ (Roger Williams, Key Lang. Amer., 1643).] (See quot. 1789.)
1789. A. Mackenzie, Voy. fr. Montreal, iii. (1801), 37. The vessels in which they cook their victuals, are in the shape of a gourd,… and of watape, fabricated in such a manner as to hold water. Ibid., foot-n., Watape is the name given to the divided roots of the spruce-fir, which the natives weave into a degree of compactness that renders it capable of containing a fluid. The different parts of the bark canoes are also sewed together with this kind of filament.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 14. The small roots of the tree afford the wattap, with which the bark is sewed.
