What does "tied up in a cotton handkerchief" mean? [closed]

I came across this phrase in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving:

The revenue arising from his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda; but to help out his maintenance, he was, according to country custom in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers whose children he instructed. With these he lived successively a week at a time, thus going the rounds of the neighborhood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief.

I interpret "cotton handkerchief" to be related to consumption of food, but am not sure what it means to be "tied up" in it.

Solution 1:

It means literally what it says: He had so few possessions ("worldly effects") that he was able to carry all of them by laying them on a handkerchief (which was made of cotton) and tying the corners of the handkerchief together so that it formed a loose bag.

If you then take this bag and tie it to, or hang it from, the end of a stick, you have a bindle, the classic "hobo" method of carrying possessions, as shown in this image.