The Acorn-Planter

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Title: The Acorn-Planter
A California Forest Play (1916)
Author: Jack London
Release Date: July 19, 2007 [EBook #22104]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ACORN-PLANTER ***
Produced by David Widger
THE ACORN-PLANTER
A California Forest Play?Planned To Be Sung By Efficient Singers?Accompanied By A Capable Orchestra
By Jack London
1916
ARGUMENT
In the morning of the world, while his tribe?makes its camp for the night in a grove, Red?Cloud, the first man of men, and the first man?of the Nishinam, save in war, sings of the duty?of life, which duty is to make life more abundant.?The Shaman, or medicine man, sings of?foreboding and prophecy. The War Chief, who?commands in war, sings that war is the only?way to life. This Red Cloud denies, affirming?that the way of life is the way of the acornplanter,?and that whoso slays one man slays?the planter of many acorns. Red Cloud wins?the Shaman and the people to his contention.
After the passage of thousands of years, again?in the grove appear the Nishinam. In Red?Cloud, the War Chief, the Shaman, and the?Dew-Woman are repeated the eternal figures?of the philosopher, the soldier, the priest, and?the woman--types ever realizing themselves?afresh in the social adventures of man. Red?Cloud recognizes the wrecked explorers as?planters and life-makers, and is for treating?them with kindness. But the War Chief and?the idea of war are dominant The Shaman?joins with the war party, and is privy to the?massacre of the explorers.
A hundred years pass, when, on their seasonal?migration, the Nishinam camp for the night in?the grove. They still live, and the war formula?for life seems vindicated, despite the imminence?of the superior life-makers, the whites, who are?flooding into California from north, south, east,?and west--the English, the Americans, the?Spaniards, and the Russians. The massacre by?the white men follows, and Red Cloud, dying,?recognizes the white men as brother acorn-planters,?the possessors of the superior life-formula?of which he had always been a protagonist.
In the Epilogue, or Apotheosis, occur the?celebration of the death of war and the triumph?of the acorn-planters.
PROLOGUE
Time. _In the morning of the world._
Scene. _A forest hillside where great trees stand with wide spaces between. A stream flows from a spring that bursts out of the hillside. It is a place of lush ferns and brakes, also, of thickets of such shrubs as inhabit a redwood forest floor. At the left, in the open level space at the foot of the hillside, extending out of sight among the trees, is visible a portion of a Nishinam Indian camp. It is a temporary?camp for the night. Small cooking fires smoulder. Standing about are withe-woven baskets for the carrying of supplies and dunnage. Spears and bows and quivers of arrows lie about. Boys drag in dry branches for firewood. Young?women fill gourds with water from the stream and proceed about their camp tasks. A number of older women are?pounding acorns in stone mortars with stone pestles. An old man and a Shaman, or priest, look expectantly up the hillside. All wear moccasins and are skin-clad, primitive, in their garmenting. Neither iron nor woven cloth occurs in the weapons and gear._
{Shaman}?_(Looking up hillside.)_?Red Cloud is late.
{Old Man}?_(After inspection of hillside.)_?He has chased the deer far. He is patient.?In the chase he is patient like an old man.
{Shaman}?His feet are as fleet as the deer's.
{Old Man}?_(Nodding.)_?And he is more patient than the deer.
{Shaman}?_(Assertively, as if inculcating a lesson.)_?He is a mighty chief.
{Old Man}?_(Nodding.)_?His father was a mighty chief. He is like to?his father.
{Shaman}?_(More assertively.)_?He is his father. It is so spoken. He is?his father's father. He is the first man, the?first Red Cloud, ever born, and born again, to?chiefship of his people.
{Old Man}?It is so spoken.
{Shaman}?His father was the Coyote. His mother was?the Moon. And he was the first man.
{Old Man}?_(Repeating.)_?His father was the Coyote. His mother was?the Moon. And he was the first man.
{Shaman}?He planted the first acorns, and he is very?wise.
{Old Man}?_(Repeating.)_?He planted the first acorns, and he is very?wise.
_(Cries from the women and a turning of?faces. Red Cloud appears among his?hunters descending the hillside. All?carry spears, and bows and arrows.?Some carry rabbits and other small?game. Several carry deer)_
PLAINT OF THE NISHINAM
Red Cloud, the meat-bringer!?Red Cloud, the acorn-planter!?Red Cloud, first man of the Nishinam!?Thy people hunger.?Far have they fared.?Hard has the way been.?Day long they sought,?High in the mountains,?Deep in 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