The Acorn-Planter | Page 2

the pools,
Wide 'mong the grasses,
In the
bushes, and tree-tops,
Under the earth and flat stones.
Few are the
acorns,
Past is the time for berries,
Fled are the fishes, the prawns
and the grasshoppers,
Blown far are the grass-seeds,
Flown far are
the young birds,
Old are the roots and withered.
Built are the fires
for the meat.
Laid are the boughs for sleep,
Yet thy people cannot
sleep.
Red Cloud, thy people hunger.
{Red Cloud}
_(Still descending.)_
Good hunting! Good hunting!
{Hunters}

Good hunting! Good hunting!
_(Completing the descent, Red Cloud
motions to the meat-bearers.
They throw
down their burdens before the women,
who greedily

inspect the spoils.)_
MEAT SONG OF THE NISHINAM
Meat that is good to eat,
Tender for old teeth,
Gristle for young
teeth,
Big deer and fat deer,
Lean meat and fat meat,

Haunch-meat and knuckle-bone,
Liver and heart.
Food for the old
men,
Life for all men,
For women and babes.
Easement of
hunger-pangs,
Sorrow destroying,
Laughter provoking,
Joy
invoking,
In the smell of its smoking
And its sweet in the mouth.
_(The younger women take charge of the meat,
and the older women
resume their acorn-pounding.)_
_(Red Cloud approaches the acorn-pounders
and watches them with
pleasure.
All group about him, the Shaman to the
fore, and hang
upon his every action, his
every utterance.)_
{Red Cloud}
The heart of the acorn is good?
{First Old Woman}
_(Nodding.)_
It is good food.
{Red Cloud}
When you have pounded and winnowed and
washed
away the bitter.
{Second Old Woman}
As thou taught'st us, Red Cloud, when the

world was very young and thou wast the first man.
{Red Cloud}
It is a fat food. It makes life, and life is good.
{Shaman}
It was thou, Red Cloud, gathering the acorns
and
teaching the storing, who gavest life to the
Nishinam in the lean years
aforetime, when the
tribes not of the Nishinam passed like the dew

of the morning.
_(He nods a signal to the Old Man.)_

{Old Man}
In the famine in the old time,
When the old man was a
young man,
When the heavens ceased from raining,
When the
grasslands parched and withered,
When the fishes left the river,

And the wild meat died of sickness,
In the tribes that knew not acorns,

All their women went dry-breasted,
All their younglings chewed
the deer-hides,
All their old men sighed and perished,
And the
young men died beside them,
Till they died by tribe and totem,
And
o'er all was death upon them.
Yet the Nishinam unvanquished,
Did
not perish by the famine.
Oh, the acorns Red Cloud gave them!
Oh,
the acorns Red Cloud taught them
How to store in willow baskets

'Gainst the time and need of famine!
{Shaman}
_(Who, throughout the Old Man's recital, has
nodded
approbation, turning to Red
Cloud.)_
Sing to thy people, Red Cloud, the song of
life which is the song of
the acorn.
{Red Cloud}
_(Making ready to begin)_
And which is the song of
woman, O Shaman.
{Shaman}
_(Hushing the people to listen, solemnly)_
He sings with
his father's lips, and with the
lips of his father's fathers to the
beginning of time
and men.
SONG OF THE FIRST MAN
{Red Cloud}
I am Red Cloud,
The first man of the Nishinam.
My
father was the Coyote.
My mother was the Moon.
The Coyote
danced with the stars,
And wedded the Moon on a mid-summer night

The Coyote is very wise,
The Moon is very old,
Mine is his
wisdom,
Mine is her age.

I am the first man.
I am the life-maker
and the father of life.
I am the fire-bringer.
The Nishinam were the
first men,
And they were without fire,
And knew the bite of the
frost of bitter nights.
The panther stole the fire from the East,
The

fox stole the fire from the panther,
The ground squirrel stole the fire
from the fox,
And I, Red Cloud, stole the fire from the ground
squirrel. I, Red Cloud, stole the fire for the Nishinam,
And hid it in
the heart of the wood.
To this day is the fire there in the heart of the
wood. I am the Acorn-Planter.
I brought down the acorns from
heaven.
I planted the short acorns in the valley.
I planted the long
acorns in the valley.
I planted the black-oak acorns that sprout, that
sprout! I planted the _sho-kum_ and all the roots of the ground. I
planted the oat and the barley, the beaver-tail grass-nut, The tar-weed
and crow-foot, rock lettuce and ground lettuce, And I taught the virtue
of clover in the season of blossom, The yellow-flowered clover,
ball-rolled in its yellow dust. I taught the cooking in baskets by hot
stones from the fire, Took the bite from the buckeye and soap-root
By
ground-roasting and washing in the sweetness of water, And of the
manzanita the berry I made into flour,
Taught the way of its cooking
with hot stones in sand pools, And the way of its eating with the
knobbed tail of the deer. Taught I likewise the gathering and storing,

The parching and pounding
Of the seeds from the grasses and
grass-roots;
And taught I the planting of seeds in the Nishinam
home-camps, In the Nishinam hills and their valleys,
In the due times
and seasons,
To sprout in the spring rains and grow ripe in the sun.
{Shaman}
Hail, Red Cloud, the first man!
{The People}
Hail, Red Cloud, the first man!
{Shaman}
Who