The Acorn-Planter

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,