The Acorn-Planter | Page 5

Nishinam will be less than the dreams that
trouble the sleeper. The Nishinam 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 spearthrust
and war-club. I am
the War Chief. In
war I command.
_(The People greet War Chief's pronouncement
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 passed, 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
Nishinam 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 fishing! Good fishing!
{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
Nishinam. Such is the word.
{War Chief}
Hoh! Hoh!
_(From right Deer Foot runs in.)_
{Deer Foot}
_(Breathless.)_
They come! He comes!
{War Chief}
Who comes?
{Deer Foot}
The Sun Men. The Sun Man. He is their
chief. He
marches before them.