The Acorn-Planter | Page 3

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 they would?continue to be the mothers of men.
{War Chief}?It is told of old time that there are women in?the councils of the Sim. And is it not told that?the Sun Man will destroy us?
{Red Cloud}?Then is the Sun Man the stronger; it may be?because of his kindness and wiseness, and because?of his women.
{Young Brave}?Is it told that the women of the Sun are good?to the eye, soft to the arm, and a fire in the heart?of man?
{Shaman}?_(Holding up hand solemnly.)_?It were well, lest the young do not forget, to?repeat the old word again.
{War Chief}?_(Nodding confirmation.)_?Here, where the tale is told.
_(Pointing to the spring.)_?Here, where the water burst from under