The Acorn-Planter Part 1

The Acorn-Planter.

by Jack London.

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 Nis.h.i.+nam, 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 pa.s.sage of thousands of years, again in the grove appear the Nis.h.i.+nam. 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 ma.s.sacre of the explorers.

A hundred years pa.s.s, when, on their seasonal migration, the Nis.h.i.+nam 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 ma.s.sacre 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 s.p.a.ces 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 s.p.a.ce at the foot of the hillside, extending out of sight among the trees, is visible a portion of a Nis.h.i.+nam 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._

{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} _(a.s.sertively, 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 a.s.sertively.)_ 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 chiefs.h.i.+p 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 NIs.h.i.+NAM

Red Cloud, the meat-bringer!

Red Cloud, the acorn-planter!

Red Cloud, first man of the Nis.h.i.+nam!

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 gra.s.ses, 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 gra.s.shoppers, Blown far are the gra.s.s-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 NIs.h.i.+NAM

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.

Eas.e.m.e.nt 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 Nis.h.i.+nam in the lean years aforetime, when the tribes not of the Nis.h.i.+nam pa.s.sed like the dew of the morning.

_(He nods a signal to the Old Man.)_