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 the heel
     of the Sun Man mounting into the sky.

     (War Chief leads the way up the hillside
     to the spring, and signals to the Old Man
     to begin)
     Old Man     When the world was in the making,
     Here within the mighty forest,
     Came the Sun Man every morning.
     White and shining was the Sun Man,
     Blue his eyes were as the sky-blue,
     Bright his hair was as dry grass is,
     Warm his eyes were as the sun is,
     Fruit and flower were in his glances;
     All he looked on grew and sprouted,
     As these trees we see about us,
     Mightiest trees in all the forest,
     For the Sun Man looked upon them.

     Where his glance fell grasses seeded,
     Where his feet fell sprang upstarting—
     Buckeye woods and hazel thickets,
     Berry bushes, manzanita,
     Till his pathway was a garden,
     Flowing after like a river,
     Laughing into bud and blossom.
     There was never frost nor famine
     And the Nishinam were happy,
     Singing, dancing through the seasons,
     Never cold and never hungered,
     When the Sun Man lived among us.

     But the foxes mean and cunning,
     Hating Nishinam and all men,
     Laid their snares within this forest,
     Caught the Sun Man in the morning,