The Acorn-Planter | Page 3

showedst us the way of our feet in the world!
{The People}
Who showedst us the way of our feet in the world!
{Shaman}
Who showedst us the way of our food in the world!
{The People}
Who showedst us the way of our food in the world!
{Shaman}
Who showedst us the way of our hearts in the world!

{The People}
Who showedst us the way of our hearts in the world!
{Shaman}
Who gavest us the law of family!
{The People}
Who gavest us the law of family!
{Shaman}
The law of tribe!
{The People}
The law of tribe!
{Shaman}
The law of totem!
{The People}
The law of totem!
{Shaman}
And madest us strong in the world among men!
{The People}
And madest us strong in the world among men!
{Red Cloud}
Life is good, O Shaman, and I have sung but
half its
song. Acorns are good. So is woman
good. Strength is good. Beauty
is good. So is
kindness good. Yet are all these things without
power
except for woman. And by these things
woman makes strong men,
and strong men make
for life, ever for more life.
{War Chief}
_(With gesture of interruption that causes

remonstrance from the Shaman but which
Red Cloud
acknowledges.)_
I care not for beauty. I desire strength in
battle and wind in the chase
that I may kill my
enemy and run down my meat.
{Red Cloud}
Well spoken, O War Chief. By voices in
council we
learn our minds, and that, too, is
strength. Also, is it kindness. For
kindness
and strength and beauty are one. The eagle in
the high
blue of the sky is beautiful. The salmon
leaping the white water in the
sunlight is beautiful.
The young man fastest of foot in the race
is

beautiful. And because they fly well, and leap
well, and run well, are
they beautiful. Beauty
must beget beauty. The ring-tail cat begets

the ring-tail cat, the dove the dove. Never
does the dove beget the
ring-tail cat. Hearts
must be kind. The little turtle is not kind.
That
is why it is the little turtle. It lays its
eggs in the sun-warm sand and
forgets its young
forever. And the little turtle is forever the
Kttle
turtle. But we are not little turtles,
because we are kind. We do not
leave our young
to the sun in the sand. Our women keep our
young
warm under their hearts, and, after, they
keep them warm with
deer-skin and campfire.
Because we are kind we are men and not
little
turtles, and that is why we eat the little turtle
that is not strong
because it is not kind.
{War Chief}
_(Gesturing to be heard.)_
The Modoc come against
us in their strength.
Often the Modoc come against us. We cannot

be kind to the Modoc.
{Red Cloud}
That will come after. Kindness grows. First
must we
be kind to our own. After, long after,
all men will be kind to all men,
and all men will
be very strong. The strength of the Nishinam
is not
the strength of its strongest fighter. It is
the strength of all the
Nishinam added together
that makes the Nishinam strong. We talk,
you
and I, War Chief and First Man, because we are
kind one to the
other, and thus we add together
our wisdom, and all the Nishinam are
stronger
because we have talked.
_(A voice is heard singing. Red Cloud
holds up his hand for
silence.)_
MATING SONG
{Dew-Woman}
In the morning by the river,
In the evening at the fire,
In the night when all lay sleeping,

Torn was I with life's desire.
There were stirrings 'neath my
heart-beats
Of the dreams that came to me;
In my ears were whispers, voices,
Of the children yet to be.
{Red Cloud}
_(As Red Cloud sings, Dew-Woman
steals from
behind a tree and approaches
him.)_
In the morning by the river
Saw I first my maid of dew,
Daughter of the dew and dawnlight,
Of the dawn and honey-dew.
She was laughter, she was sunlight,
Woman, maid, and mate, and wife;
She was sparkle, she was
gladness,
She was all the song of life.
{Dew-Woman}
In the night I built my fire,
Fire that maidens foster when
In the ripe of mating season
Each builds for her man of men.
{Red Cloud}
In the night I sought her, proved her,
Found her ease, content, and rest,
After day of toil and struggle
Man's reward on woman's breast.
{Dew-Woman}
Came to me my mate and lover;
Kind the hands he laid on me;
Wooed me gently as a man may,
Father of the race to be.

{Red Cloud}
Soft her arms about me bound me,
First man of the Nishinam,
Arms as soft as dew and dawnlight,
Daughter of the Nishinam.
{Red Cloud}
She was life and she was woman!
{Dew-Woman}
He was life and he was man!
{Red Cloud} and Dew-Woman
_(Arms about each other.)_
In the dusk-time of our love-night,
There beside the marriage fire,
Proved we all the sweets of living,
In the arms of our desire.
{War Chief}
_(Angrily.)_
The councils of men are not the place for

women.
{Red Cloud}
_(Gently.)_
As men grow kind and wise there will be

women in the councils of men. As men grow
their women must
grow with them if