The Acorn-Planter

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Title: The Acorn-Planter
A California Forest Play (1916)
Author: Jack London
Release Date: July 19, 2007 [EBook #22104]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ACORN-PLANTER ***
Produced by David Widger
THE ACORN-PLANTER
A California Forest Play
Planned To Be Sung By Efficient Singers

Accompanied By A Capable Orchestra
By Jack London
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 acornplanter,
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._
{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