The Acorn-Planter, Jack London [free ebook reader .txt] 📗

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.)