seek.

     Red Cloud     (Advancing out of the shadow.)     Whence do you come?

     Sun Man     From the great sea.

     Red Cloud     I do not understand. No one journeys
     on the great sea.

     Sun Man     We have journeyed many moons.

     Red Cloud     Have you come from the sun?

     Sun Man     God wot! We have journeyed across the
     sun, high and low in the sky, and over the sun
     and under the sun the round world 'round.

     Red Cloud     (With conviction.)     You come from the Sun. Your hair is like
     the summer sunburnt grasses. Your eyes are
     blue. Your skin is white.

     (With absolute conviction.)     You are the Sun Man.

     Sun Man     (With a shrug of shoulders.)     Have it so. I come from the Sun. I am the
     Sun Man.

     Red Cloud     Do you carry the thunder in your hand?

     Sun Man     (Nonplussed for the moment, glances at
     his musket, then smiles.)     Yes, I carry the thunder in my hand.

     (War Chief and the Hunters leap
     suddenly from ambush. Sun Man
     warns Sea Cunies not to resist. War
     Chief captures and holds Sun Man,
     and Sea Cunies are similarly captured
     and held. Women and boys appear, and
     examine prisoners curiously.)
     War Chief     Hoh! Hoh! Hoh! I have captured the
     Sun Man! Like the foxes, I have captured
     the Sun Man!—Deer Foot! Elk Man! The
     foxes held the Sun Man. I now hold the Sun
     Man. Then can you hold the Sun Man.

     (Deer Foot and Elk Man seize the Sun
     Man.)
     Red Cloud     (To Shaman.)     He said he came in kindness.

     War Chief     (Sneering.)     In kindness, with the thunder in his hand.

     Shaman     (Deflected to partisanship of War Chief
     by War Chief's success.)     By his own lips has he said it, with the thunder
     in his hand.

     War Chief     You are the Sun Man.

     Sun Man     (Shrugging shoulders.)     My names are many as the stars. Call me
     White Man.

     Red Cloud     I am Red Cloud, the first man.

     Sun Man     Then am I Adam, the first man and your
     brother.

     (Glancing about.)     And this is Eden, to look upon it.

     Red Cloud     My father was the Coyote.

     Sun Man     My father was Jehovah.

     Red Cloud     I am the Fire-Bringer. I stole the fire from
     the ground squirrel and hid it in the heart of
     the wood.

     Sun Man     Then am I Prometheus, your brother. I
     stole the fire from heaven and hid it in the heart
     of the wood.

     Red Cloud     I am the Acorn-Planter. I am the Food-
     Bringer, the Life-Maker. I make food for
     more life, ever more life.

     Sun Man     Then am I truly your brother. Life-Maker
     am I, tilling the soil in the sweat of my brow
     from the beginning of time, planting all manner
     of good seeds for the harvest.

     (Looking sharply at Red Cloud's skin
     garments.)     Also am I the Weaver and Cloth-Maker.

     (Holding out arm so that Red Cloud may
     examine the cloth of the coat)     From the hair of the goat and the wool of
     the sheep, and from beaten and spun grasses,
     do I make the cloth to keep man warm.

     Shaman     (Breaking in boastfully.)     I am the Shaman. I know all secret things.

     Sun Man     I know my pathway under the sun over all
     the seas, and I know the secrets of the stars
     that show me my path where no path is. I
     know when the Wolf of Darkness shall eat the
     moon.

     (Pointing toward moon.)     On this night shall the Wolf of Darkness eat
     the moon.

     (He turns suddenly to Red Cloud,
     drawing sheath-knife and passing it
     to him.)
     More, O First Man and Acorn-Planter. I am
     the Iron-Maker. Behold!

     (Red Cloud examines knife, understands
     immediately its virtue, cuts easily a strip
     of skin from his skin garment, and is
     overcome with the wonder of the knife.)
     War Chief     (Exhibiting a long bow.)     I am the War Chief. No man, save me, has
     strength to bend this bow. I can slay farther
     than any man.

     (A huge bear has come out among the
     bushes far up the hillside)
     Sun Man     I, too, am War Chief over men, and I can
     slay farther than you.

     War Chief     Hoh! Hoh!

     Sun Man     (Pointing to bear)     Can you slay that with your strong bow?

     War Chief     (Dubiously)     It is a far shot. Too far. No man can slay
     a great bear so far.

     (Sun Man, shaking off from his arms the
     hands of Deer Foot and Elk Man,
     aims musket and fires. The bear falls,
     and the Nishinam betray astonishment
     and awe)
     (At a quick signal from War Chief,
     Sun Man is again seized. War Chief
     takes away musket and examines it.)
     Shaman     There is a sign.

     People     There is a sign.
     He carries the thunder in his hand.
     He slays with the thunder in his hand.
     He is the enemy of the Nishinam.
     He will destroy the Nishinam.

     Shaman     There is a sign.

     People     There is a sign.
     In the day the Sun Man comes,
     The waters from the spring will no longer flow,
     And in that day will he destroy the Nishinam.

     War Chief     (Exhibiting musket.)     Hoh! Hoh! I have taken the Sun Man's
     thunder.

     Shaman     Now shall the Sun Man die that the Nishinam
     may live.

     Red Cloud     He is our brother. He, too, is an acorn-
     planter. He has spoken.

     Shaman     He is the Sun Man, and he is our eternal
     enemy. He shall die.

     War Chief     In war I command.

     (To Hunters.)     Tie their feet with stout thongs that they
     may not run. And then make ready with bow
     and arrow to do the deed.

     (Hunters obey, urging and thrusting the
     Sea Cunies into a compact group behind
     the Sun Man.)
     Red Cloud     Shaman I am not.
     I know not the secret things.
     I say the things I know.
     When you plant kindness you harvest kindness.
     When you plant blood you harvest blood.
     He who plants one acorn makes way for life.
     He who slays one man slays the planter of a
     thousand acorns.

     Shaman     Shaman I