The Acorn-Planter

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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