полная версия
Джек Лондон
The Acorn-Planter
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 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,
With their ropes of sinew caught him,
Bound him down to steal his wisdom
And become themselves bright Sun Men,
Warm of glance and fruitful-footed,
Masters of the frost and famine.
Swiftly the Coyote running
Came to aid the fallen Sun Man,
Swiftly killed the cunning foxes,
Swiftly cut the ropes of sinew,
Swiftly the Coyote freed him.
But the Sun Man in his anger,
Lightning flashing, thunder-throwing,
Loosed the frost and fanged the famine,
Thorned the bushes, pinched the berries,
Put the bitter in the buckeye,
Rocked the mountains to their summits,
Flung the hills into the valleys,
Sank the lakes and shoaled the rivers,
Poured the fresh sea in the salt sea,
Stamped his foot here in the forest,
Where the water burst from under
Heel that raised him into heaven—
Angry with the world forever
Rose the Sun Man into heaven.
Shaman (Solemnly.) I am the Shaman. I know what has gone
before and what will come after. I have passed
down through the gateway of death and talked
with the dead. My eyes have looked upon the
unseen things. My ears have heard the
unspoken words. And now I shall tell you of
the Sun Man in the days to come.
(Shaman stiffens suddenly with hideous
facial distortions, with inturned eye-balls
and loosened jaw. He waves his arms
about, writhes and twists in torment, as
if in epilepsy.)
(The Women break into a wailing, inarticulate
chant, swaying their bodies to the
accent. The men join them somewhat
reluctantly, all save Red Cloud, who
betrays vexation, and War Chief, who
betrays truculence.)
(Shaman, leading the rising frenzy, with
convulsive shiverings and tremblings tears
of his skin garments so that he is quite
naked save for a girdle of eagle-claws
about his thighs. His long black hair
flies about his face. With an abruptness
that is startling, he ceases all movement
and stands erect, rigid. This is greeted
with a low moaning that slowly dies
away.)
CHANT OF PROPHECY
Shaman The Sun never grows cold.
The Sun Man is like the Sun.
His anger never grows cold.
The Sun Man will return.
The Sun Man will come back from the Sun.
People The Sun Man will return.
The Sun Man will come back from the Sun.
Shaman There is a sign.
As the water burst forth when he rose into the sky,
So will the water cease to flow when he returns from the sky.
The Sun Man is mighty.
In his eyes is blue fire.
In his hands he bears the thunder.
The lightnings are in his hair.
People In his hands he bears the thunder.
The lightnings are in his hair.
Shaman There is a sign.
The Sun Man is white.
His skin is white like the sun.
His hair is bright like the sunlight.'
His eyes are blue like the sky.
People There is a sign.
The Sun Man is white.
Shaman The Sun Man is mighty.
He is the enemy of the Nishinam.
He will destroy the Nishinam.
People He is the enemy of the Nishinam.
He will destroy the Nishinam.
Shaman There is a sign.
The Sun Man will bear the thunder in his hand.
People There is a sign.
The Sun Man will bear the thunder in his hand.
Shaman In the day the Sun Man comes
The water from the spring will no longer flow.
And in that day he will destroy the Nishinam.
With the thunder will he destroy the Nishinam.
The Nishinam will be like last year's grasses.
The Nishinam will be like the smoke of last year's campfires.
The Nishinam will be less than the dreams that trouble the sleeper.
The Nishinam will be like the days no man remembers.
I am the Shaman.
I have spoken.
(The People set up a sad wailing.)
War Chief (Striking his chest with his fist.) Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!
(The People cease from their wailing and
look to the War Chief with hopeful
expectancy.)
War Chief I am the War Chief. In war I command.
Nor the Shaman nor Red Cloud may say me nay
when in war I command. Let the Sun Man
come back. I am not afraid. If the foxes snared
him with ropes, then can I slay him with spear-
thrust and war-club. I am the War Chief. In
war I command.
(The People greet War Chief's pronouncement
with warlike cries of approval.)
Red Cloud The foxes are cunning. If they snared the Sun Man
With ropes of sinew, then let us be cunning
And snare him with ropes of kindness.
In kindness, O War Chief, is strength, much strength.
Shaman Red Cloud speaks true. In kindness is strength.
War Chief I am the War Chief.
Shaman You cannot slay the Sun Man.
War Chief I am the War Chief.
Shaman The Sun Man fights with the thunder in his hand.
War Chief I am the War Chief.
Red Cloud (As he speaks the People are visibly wan by
his argument.)
You speak true, O War Chief. In war you
