Different cultures have used different strategies. In Indian (and South Asia more generally), they often used a small container of water to cleanse themselves. Various plant materials have been used, including corn husks and birch bark. Both paper and cloth were generally too expensive before the later 19th century, to use for so quotidian a purpose as wiping your ass. Generally, people would use whatever was handy and cheap enough to be disposable. Which in Europe and North America, usually meant straw, corn husks, or similar.