Jack London
The Acorn-Planter / A California Forest Play (1916)

ARGUMENT

     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.

PROLOGUE

     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.

ACT I

     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.
     Built are the fires for the meat.
     Laid are the boughs for sleep,
     Yet thy people cannot sleep.
     Red Cloud, thy people hunger.

     Red Cloud     (Still descending.)     Good hunting! Good hunting!

     Hunters     Good hunting! Good hunting!

     (Completing the descent, Red Cloud
     motions to the meat-bearers. They throw
     down their burdens before the women,
     who greedily inspect the spoils.)
     MEAT SONG OF THE NISHINAM

     Meat that is good to eat,
     Tender for old teeth,
     Gristle for young teeth,
     Big deer and fat deer,
     Lean meat and fat meat,
     Haunch-meat and knuckle-bone,
     Liver and heart.
     Food for the old men,
     Life for all men,
     For women and babes.
     Easement of hunger-pangs,
     Sorrow destroying,
     Laughter provoking,
     Joy invoking,
     In the smell of its smoking
     And its sweet in the mouth.

     (The younger women take charge of the meat,
     and the older women resume their acorn-pounding.)
     (Red Cloud approaches the acorn-pounders
     and watches them with pleasure.
     All group about him, the Shaman to the
     fore, and hang upon his every action, his
     every utterance.)
     Red Cloud     The heart of the acorn is good?

     First Old Woman     (Nodding.)     It is good food.

     Red Cloud     When you have pounded and winnowed and
     washed away the bitter.

     Second Old Woman     As thou taught'st us, Red Cloud, when the
     world was very young and thou wast the first man.

     Red Cloud     It is a fat food. It makes life, and life is good.

     Shaman     It was thou, Red Cloud, gathering the acorns
     and teaching the storing, who gavest life to the
     Nishinam in the lean years aforetime, when the
     tribes not of the Nishinam passed like the dew
     of the morning.

     (He nods a signal to the Old Man.)
     Old Man     In the famine in the old time,
     When the old man was a young man,
     When the heavens ceased from raining,
     When the grasslands parched and withered,
     When the fishes left the river,
     And the wild meat died of sickness,
     In the tribes that knew not acorns,
     All their women went dry-breasted,
     All their younglings chewed the deer-hides,
     All their old men sighed and perished,
     And the young men died beside them,
     Till they died by tribe and totem,
     And o'er all was death upon them.
     Yet the Nishinam unvanquished,
     Did not perish by the famine.
     Oh, the acorns Red Cloud gave them!
     Oh, the acorns Red Cloud taught them
     How to store in willow baskets
     'Gainst the time and need of famine!

     Shaman     (Who, throughout the Old Man's recital, has
     nodded approbation, turning to Red
     Cloud.)
     Sing to thy people, Red Cloud, the song of
     life which is the song of the acorn.

     Red Cloud     (Making ready to begin)     And which is the song of woman, O Shaman.

     Shaman     (Hushing the people to listen, solemnly)     He sings with his father's lips, and with the
     lips of his father's fathers to the beginning of time
     and men.
     SONG OF THE FIRST MAN

     Red Cloud     I am Red Cloud,
     The first man of the Nishinam.
     My father was the Coyote.
     My mother was the Moon.
     The Coyote danced with the stars,
     And wedded the Moon on a mid-summer night
     The Coyote is very wise,
     The Moon is very old,
     Mine is his wisdom,
     Mine is her age.
     I am the first man.
     I am the life-maker and the father of life.
     I am the fire-bringer.
     The Nishinam were the first men,
     And they were without fire,
     And knew the bite of the frost of bitter nights.
     The panther stole the fire from the East,
     The fox stole the fire from the panther,
     The ground squirrel stole the fire from the fox,
     And I, Red Cloud, stole the fire from the ground squirrel.
     I, Red Cloud, stole the fire for the Nishinam,
     And hid it in the heart of the wood.
     To this day is the fire there in the heart of the wood.
     I am the Acorn-Planter.
     I brought down the acorns from heaven.
     I planted the short acorns in the valley.
     I planted the long acorns in the valley.
     I planted the black-oak acorns that sprout, that sprout!
     I planted the sho-kum and all the roots of the ground.
     I planted the oat and the barley, the beaver-tail grass-nut,
     The tar-weed and crow-foot, rock lettuce and ground lettuce,
     And I taught the virtue of clover in the season of blossom,
     The yellow-flowered clover, ball-rolled in its yellow dust.
     I taught the cooking in baskets by hot stones from the fire,
     Took the bite from the buckeye and soap-root
     By ground-roasting and washing in the sweetness of water,
     And of the manzanita the berry I made into flour,
     Taught the way of its cooking with hot stones in sand pools,
     And the way of its eating with the knobbed tail of the deer.
     Taught I likewise the gathering and storing,
     The parching and pounding
     Of the seeds from the grasses and grass-roots;
     And taught I the planting of seeds in the Nishinam home-camps,
     In the Nishinam hills and their valleys,
     In the due times and seasons,
     To sprout in the spring rains and grow ripe in the sun.

     Shaman     Hail, Red Cloud, the first man!

     The People     Hail, Red Cloud, the first man!

     Shaman     Who showedst us the way of our feet in the world!

     The People     Who showedst us the way of our feet in the world!

     Shaman     Who showedst us the way of our food in the world!

     The People     Who showedst us the way of our food in the world!

     Shaman     Who showedst us the way of our hearts in the world!

     The People     Who showedst us the way of our hearts in the world!

     Shaman     Who gavest us the law of family!

     The People     Who gavest us the law of family!

     Shaman     The law of tribe!

     The People     The law of tribe!

     Shaman     The law of totem!

     The People     The law of totem!

     Shaman     And madest us strong in the world among men!

     The People     And madest us strong in the world among men!

     Red Cloud     Life is good, O Shaman, and I have sung but
     half its song. Acorns are good. So is woman
     good. Strength is good. Beauty is good. So is
     kindness good. Yet are all these things without
     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,

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