EARTH AND ITS MOTIONS.—Their knowledge on this subject is very limited. They believe the earth to be a great plain containing perhaps double the extent of country with which they are acquainted, and that it is void of motion. They do not believe the stars are inhabited by other people, but admit they may be abiding places of ghosts or spirits of the departed. They are not fond of talking about these things, neither do their opinions agree, each man’s story differing materially from the other and all showing extreme ignorance and superstition. They believe that Wakoñda created all things and this one idea appears original and universal, further than which, however, they are at a loss. If they can not be made to comprehend the extent of the earth and its laws of motion, etc., there is much less likelihood that they can have any reasonable idea of the field of space or other creations therein further than superstitious notions according to the fancy of the individual. [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 64 _Drawings by an Assiniboine Indian Fort Union Nov. 10. 1853._] [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 65 CULINARY UTENSILS] [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 66 CHARACTERISTIC IMPLEMENTS OF THE ASSINIBOINE] [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 67 _a_, Comb root. _b_, Cat-tail.] THE SUN.—They take the sun to be a large body of fire, making its daily journey across the plains for the purpose of giving light and heat to all, and admit it may be the residence of Wakoñda; consequently it is worshiped, venerated, smoked, and invocated on all solemn occasions. We have often endeavored to explain the diurnal revolution of the earth, representing the sun as stationary, but always failed. They must first be brought to understand the attractions of cohesion and gravitation, for, as a sensible Indian stated on one of these occasions, “If at midnight we are all on the under side, what is to hinder the Missouri from spilling out, and us from falling off the earth? Flies, spiders, birds, etc., have small claws by which they adhere to the ceiling and other places, though man and water have no such support.” THE SKY.—Those who take the trouble to explain state the sky to be a material mass of a blue color, the composition of which they do not pretend to say, and think it has an oval or convex form, as apparent to the eye, resting for its basis on the extreme boundaries of the great plain, the earth. Hence their drawing, which is almost the only form in which they could represent it. Stars are small suns set therein, though they think they may be large bodies appearing small by seeing through space. Space is the intervening distance between earthly and heavenly bodies.