The Acorn-Planter: A California Forest Play (1916)

Name: The Acorn-Planter: A California Forest Play (1916)
Author: London, Jack

London, Jack

Indians of North America -- Drama

{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.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Acorn-Planter: A California Forest Play (1916)

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