The Acorn-Planter Part 3

The Nis.h.i.+nam will be like last year's gra.s.ses.

The Nis.h.i.+nam will be like the smoke of last year's campfires.

The Nis.h.i.+nam will be less than the dreams that trouble the sleeper.

The Nis.h.i.+nam will be like the days no man remembers.

I am the Shaman.

I have spoken.

_(The People set up a sad wailing.)_

{War Chief} _(Striking his chest with his fist.)_ Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!

_(The People cease from their wailing and look to the War Chief with hopeful expectancy.)_

{War Chief} I am the War Chief. In war I command.

Nor the Shaman nor Red Cloud may say me nay when in war I command. Let the Sun Man come back. I am not afraid. If the foxes snared him with ropes, then can I slay him with spear- thrust and war-club. I am the War Chief. In war I command.

_(The People greet War Chief's p.r.o.nouncement with warlike cries of approval.)_

{Red Cloud} The foxes are cunning. If they snared the Sun Man With ropes of sinew, then let us be cunning And snare him with ropes of kindness.

In kindness, O War Chief, is strength, much strength.

{Shaman} Red Cloud speaks true. In kindness is strength.

{War Chief} I am the War Chief.

{Shaman} You cannot slay the Sun Man.

{War Chief} I am the War Chief.

{Shaman} The Sun Man fights with the thunder in his hand.

{War Chief} I am the War Chief.

{Red Cloud} _(As he speaks the People are visibly wan by his argument.)_

You speak true, O War Chief. In war you command. You are strong, most strong. You have slain the Modoc. You have slain the Napa.

You have slain the Clam-Eaters of the big water till the last one is not. Yet you have not slain all the foxes. The foxes cannot fight, yet are they stronger than you because you cannot slay them. The foxes are foxes, but we are men.

When the Sun Man comes we will not be cunning like the foxes. We will be kind. Kindness and love will we give to the Sun Man, so that he will be our friend. Then will he melt the frost, pull the teeth of famine, give us back our rivers of deep water, our lakes of sweet water, take the bitter from the buckeye, and in all ways make the world the good world it was before he left us.

{People} Hail, Red Cloud, the first man!

Hail, Red Cloud, the Acorn-Planter!

Who showed us the way of our feet in the world!

Who showed us the way of our food in the world!

Who showed us the way of our hearts in the world!

Who gave us the law of family, The law of tribe, The law of totem, And made us strong in the world among men!

_(While the People sing the hillside slowly grows dark.)_

ACT I

_(Ten thousand years have pa.s.sed, and it is the time of the early voyaging from Europe to the waters of the Pacific, when the deserted hillside is again revealed as the moon rises. The stream no longer flows from the spring. Since the grove is used only as a camp for the night when the Nis.h.i.+nam are on their seasonal migration there are no signs of previous camps.)_

_(Enter from right, at end of day's march, women, old men, and Shaman, the women bending under their burdens of camp gear and dunnage)_

_(Enter from left youths carrying fish-spears and large fish)_

_(Appear, coming down the hillside, Red Cloud and the hunters, many carrying meat.)_

_(The various repeated characters, despite differences of skin garmenting and decoration, resemble their prototypes of the prologue.)_

{Red Cloud} Good hunting! Good hunting!

{Hunters} Good hunting! Good hunting!

{Youths} Good fis.h.i.+ng! Good fis.h.i.+ng!

{Women} Good berries! Good acorns!

_(The women and youths and hunters, as they reach the campsite, begin throwing down their burdens)_

{Dew-Woman} _(Discovering the dry spring.)_ The water no longer flows!

{Shaman} _(Stilling the excitement that is immediate on the discovery.)_ The word of old time that has come down to us from all the Shamans who have gone before!

The Sun Man has come back from the Sun.

{Dew-Woman} _(Looking to Red Cloud.)_ Let Red Cloud speak. Since the morning of the world has Red Cloud ever been reborn with the ancient wisdom to guide us.

{War Chief} Save in war. In war I command.

_(He picks out hunters by name.)_ Deer Foot... Elk Man... Antelope. Run through the forest, climb the hill-tops, seek down the valleys, for aught you may find of this Sun Man.

_(At a wave of the War Chief's hand the three hunters depart in different directions.)_

{Dew-Woman} Let Red Cloud speak his mind.

{Red Cloud} _(Quietly)_ Last night the earth shook and there was a roaring in the air. Often have I seen, when the earth shakes and there is a roaring, that springs in some places dry up, and that in other places where were no springs, springs burst forth.

{Shaman} There is a sign.

The Shamans told it of old.

The Sun Man will bear the thunder in his hand.

{People} There is a sign.

The Sun Man will bear the thunder in his hand.

{Shaman} The roaring in the air was the thunder of the Sun Man's return. Now will he destroy the Nis.h.i.+nam. Such is the word.

{War Chief} Hoh! Hoh!