Джек Лондон
The Acorn-Planter

     command. You are strong, most strong. You
     have slain the Modoc. You have slain the Napa.
     You have slain the Clam-Eaters of the big water
     till the last one is not. Yet you have not slain
     all the foxes. The foxes cannot fight, yet are
     they stronger than you because you cannot slay
     them. The foxes are foxes, but we are men.
     When the Sun Man comes we will not be cunning
     like the foxes. We will be kind. Kindness and
     love will we give to the Sun Man, so that he will
     be our friend. Then will he melt the frost, pull
     the teeth of famine, give us back our rivers of
     deep water, our lakes of sweet water, take the
     bitter from the buckeye, and in all ways make
     the world the good world it was before he left us.

     People     Hail, Red Cloud, the first man!
     Hail, Red Cloud, the Acorn-Planter!
     Who showed us the way of our feet in the world!
     Who showed us the way of our food in the world!
     Who showed us the way of our hearts in the world!
     Who gave us the law of family,
     The law of tribe,
     The law of totem,
     And made us strong in the world among men!

     (While the People sing the hillside slowly
     grows dark.)
     ACT I

     (Ten thousand years have passed, and it is
     the time of the early voyaging from Europe
     to the waters of the Pacific, when the
     deserted hillside is again revealed as the
     moon rises. The stream no longer flows
     from the spring. Since the grove is used
     only as a camp for the night when the
     Nishinam are on their seasonal migration
     there are no signs of previous camps.)
     (Enter from right, at end of day's march,
     women, old men, and Shaman, the
     women bending under their burdens of
     camp gear and dunnage)
     (Enter from left youths carrying fish-spears
     and large fish)
     (Appear, coming down the hillside, Red
     Cloud and the hunters, many carrying
     meat.)
     (The various repeated characters, despite
     differences of skin garmenting and decoration,
     resemble their prototypes of the prologue.)
     Red Cloud     Good hunting! Good hunting!

     Hunters     Good hunting! Good hunting!

     Youths     Good fishing! Good fishing!

     Women     Good berries! Good acorns!

     (The women and youths and hunters, as they
     reach the campsite, begin throwing down
     their burdens)
     Dew-Woman     (Discovering the dry spring.)     The water no longer flows!

     Shaman     (Stilling the excitement that is immediate
     on the discovery.)     The word of old time that has come down to
     us from all the Shamans who have gone before!
     The Sun Man has come back from the Sun.

     Dew-Woman     (Looking to Red Cloud.)     Let Red Cloud speak. Since the morning of
     the world has Red Cloud ever been reborn with
     the ancient wisdom to guide us.

     War Chief     Save in war. In war I command.

     (He picks out hunters by name.)     Deer Foot… Elk Man… Antelope. Run
     through the forest, climb the hill-tops, seek down
     the valleys, for aught you may find of this Sun Man.

     (At a wave of the War Chief's hand the
     three hunters depart in different directions.)
     Dew-Woman     Let Red Cloud speak his mind.

     Red Cloud     (Quietly)     Last night the earth shook and there was a
     roaring in the air. Often have I seen, when the
     earth shakes and there is a roaring, that springs
     in some places dry up, and that in other places
     where were no springs, springs burst forth.

     Shaman     There is a sign.
     The Shamans told it of old.
     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     The roaring in the air was the thunder of the
     Sun Man's return. Now will he destroy the
     Nishinam. Such is the word.

     War Chief     Hoh! Hoh!

     (From right Deer Foot runs in.)
     Deer Foot     (Breathless.)     They come! He comes!

     War Chief     Who comes?

     Deer Foot     The Sun Men. The Sun Man. He is their
     chief. He marches before them. And he is
     white.

     People     There is a sign.
     The Sun Man is white.

     Red Cloud     Carries he the thunder in his hand?

     Deer Foot     (Puzzled)     He looks hungry.

     War Chief     Hoh! Hoh! The Sun Man is hungry. It
     will be easy to kill a hungry Sun Man.

     Red Cloud     It would be easy to be kind to a hungry Sun
     Man and give him food. We have much. The
     hunting has been good.

     War Chief     Better to kill the Sun Man.

     (He turns upon People, indicating most
     commands in gestures as he prepares the
     ambush, making women and boys conceal
     all the camp outfit and game, and
     disposing the armed hunters among the
     ferns and behind trees till all are hidden.)
     Elk Man and Antelope     (Running down hillside)     The Sun Man comes.

     (War Chief sends them to hiding places)
     War Chief     (Preparing himself to hide)     You have not hidden, O Red Cloud.

     Red Cloud     (Stepping into shadow of big tree where he
     remains inconspicuous though dimly
     visible)     I would see this Sun Man and talk with him.

     (The sound of singing is heard, and War
     Chief conceals himself)

     (Sun Man, with handful of followers, singing
     to ease the tedium of the march, enter
     from right. They are patently survivors
     of a wrecked exploring skip, making their
     way inland)
     Sun Men     We sailed three hundred strong
        For the far Barbaree;
     Our voyage has been most long
        For the far Barbaree;
           So—it's a long pull,
           Give a strong pull,
     For the far Barbaree.

     We sailed the oceans wide
        For the coast of Barbaree;
     And left our ship a sinking
        On the coast of Barbaree;
           So—it's a long pull,
           Give a strong pull,
        For the far Barbaree.

     Our ship went fast a-lee
        On the rocks of Barbaree;
     That's why we quit the sea
        On the rocks of Barbaree.
           So—it's a long pull,
           Give a strong pull,
        For the far Barbaree.

     We quit the bitter seas
        On the coast of Barbaree;
     To seek the savag-ees
        Of the far Barbaree.
           So—it's a long pull,
           Give a strong pull,
        For the far Barbaree.

     Our feet are lame and sore
        In the far Barbaree;
     From treading of the shore
        Of the far Barbaree.
           So—it's a long pull,
           Give a strong pull,
        For the far Barbaree.

     A weary brood are we
        In the far Barbaree;
     Sea cunies of the sea
        In the far Barbaree.
           So—it's a long pull,
           Give a strong pull,
        For the far Barbaree.

     Sun Man     (Who alone carries a musket, and who is
     evidently captain of the wrecked company)     No farther can we go this night. Mayhap
     to-morrow we may find the savages and food.

     (He glances about.)     This far world grows noble trees. We shall sleep
     as in a temple.

     First Sea Cuny     (Espying Red Cloud, and pointing.)     Look, Captain!

     Sun Man     (Making the universal peace-sign, arm
     raised and out, palm-outward.)     Who are you? Speak. We come in peace.
     We kindness 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?