THE ACORN-PLANTER

     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 acorn-
     planter, 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.

     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 the roots and withered.