command. You are strong, most strong. You have slain the Modoc. You have slain the Napa. You have slain the Clam-Eaters of the big water till the last one is not. Yet you have not slain all the foxes. The foxes cannot fight, yet are they stronger than you because you cannot slay them. The foxes are foxes, but we are men. When the Sun Man comes we will not be cunning like the foxes. We will be kind. Kindness and love will we give to the Sun Man, so that he will be our friend. Then will he melt the frost, pull the teeth of famine, give us back our rivers of deep water, our lakes of sweet water, take the bitter from the buckeye, and in all ways make the world the good world it was before he left us.
People Hail, Red Cloud, the first man! Hail, Red Cloud, the Acorn-Planter! Who showed us the way of our feet in the world! Who showed us the way of our food in the world! Who showed us the way of our hearts in the world! Who gave us the law of family, The law of tribe, The law of totem, And made us strong in the world among men!
(While the People sing the hillside slowly grows dark.) ACT I
(Ten thousand years have passed, and it is the time of the early voyaging from Europe to the waters of the Pacific, when the deserted hillside is again revealed as the moon rises. The stream no longer flows from the spring. Since the grove is used only as a camp for the night when the Nishinam are on their seasonal migration there are no signs of previous camps.) (Enter from right, at end of day's march, women, old men, and Shaman, the women bending under their burdens of camp gear and dunnage) (Enter from left youths carrying fish-spears and large fish) (Appear, coming down the hillside, Red Cloud and the hunters, many carrying meat.) (The various repeated characters, despite differences of skin garmenting and decoration, resemble their prototypes of the prologue.) Red Cloud Good hunting! Good hunting!
Hunters Good hunting! Good hunting!
Youths Good fishing! Good fishing!
Women Good berries! Good acorns!
(The women and youths and hunters, as they reach the campsite, begin throwing down their burdens) Dew-Woman(Discovering the dry spring.) The water no longer flows!
Shaman(Stilling the excitement that is immediate on the discovery.) The word of old time that has come down to us from all the Shamans who have gone before! The Sun Man has come back from the Sun.
Dew-Woman(Looking to Red Cloud.) Let Red Cloud speak. Since the morning of the world has Red Cloud ever been reborn with the ancient wisdom to guide us.
War Chief Save in war. In war I command.
(He picks out hunters by name.) Deer Foot… Elk Man… Antelope. Run through the forest, climb the hill-tops, seek down the valleys, for aught you may find of this Sun Man.
(At a wave of the War Chief's hand the three hunters depart in different directions.) Dew-Woman Let Red Cloud speak his mind.
Red Cloud(Quietly) Last night the earth shook and there was a roaring in the air. Often have I seen, when the earth shakes and there is a roaring, that springs in some places dry up, and that in other places where were no springs, springs burst forth.
Shaman There is a sign. The Shamans told it of old. The Sun Man will bear the thunder in his hand.
People There is a sign. The Sun Man will bear the thunder in his hand.
Shaman The roaring in the air was the thunder of the Sun Man's return. Now will he destroy the Nishinam. Such is the word.
War Chief Hoh! Hoh!
(From right Deer Foot runs in.) Deer Foot(Breathless.) They come! He comes!
War Chief Who comes?
Deer Foot The Sun Men. The Sun Man. He is their chief. He marches before them. And he is white.
People There is a sign. The Sun Man is white.
Red Cloud Carries he the thunder in his hand?
Deer Foot(Puzzled) He looks hungry.
War Chief Hoh! Hoh! The Sun Man is hungry. It will be easy to kill a hungry Sun Man.
Red Cloud It would be easy to be kind to a hungry Sun Man and give him food. We have much. The hunting has been good.
War Chief Better to kill the Sun Man.
(He turns upon People, indicating most commands in gestures as he prepares the ambush, making women and boys conceal all the camp outfit and game, and disposing the armed hunters among the ferns and behind trees till all are hidden.) Elk Man and Antelope(Running down hillside) The Sun Man comes.
(War Chief sends them to hiding places) War Chief(Preparing himself to hide) You have not hidden, O Red Cloud.
Red Cloud(Stepping into shadow of big tree where he remains inconspicuous though dimly visible) I would see this Sun Man and talk with him.
(The sound of singing is heard, and War Chief conceals himself)
(Sun Man, with handful of followers, singing to ease the tedium of the march, enter from right. They are patently survivors of a wrecked exploring skip, making their way inland) Sun Men We sailed three hundred strong For the far Barbaree; Our voyage has been most long For the far Barbaree; So—it's a long pull, Give a strong pull, For the far Barbaree.
We sailed the oceans wide For the coast of Barbaree; And left our ship a sinking On the coast of Barbaree; So—it's a long pull, Give a strong pull, For the far Barbaree.
Our ship went fast a-lee On the rocks of Barbaree; That's why we quit the sea On the rocks of Barbaree. So—it's a long pull, Give a strong pull, For the far Barbaree.
We quit the bitter seas On the coast of Barbaree; To seek the savag-ees Of the far Barbaree. So—it's a long pull, Give a strong pull, For the far Barbaree.
Our feet are lame and sore In the far Barbaree; From treading of the shore Of the far Barbaree. So—it's a long pull, Give a strong pull, For the far Barbaree.
A weary brood are we In the far Barbaree; Sea cunies of the sea In the far Barbaree. So—it's a long pull, Give a strong pull, For the far Barbaree.
Sun Man(Who alone carries a musket, and who is evidently captain of the wrecked company) No farther can we go this night. Mayhap to-morrow we may find the savages and food.
(He glances about.) This far world grows noble trees. We shall sleep as in a temple.
First Sea Cuny(Espying Red Cloud, and pointing.) Look, Captain!
Sun Man(Making the universal peace-sign, arm raised and out, palm-outward.) Who are you? Speak. We come in peace. We kindness seek.
Red Cloud(Advancing out of the shadow.) Whence do you come?
Sun Man From the great sea.
Red Cloud I do not understand. No one journeys on the great sea.
Sun Man We have journeyed many moons.
Red Cloud Have you come from the sun?
Sun Man God wot! We have journeyed across the sun, high and low in the sky, and over the sun and under the sun the round world 'round.
Red Cloud(With conviction.) You come from the Sun. Your hair is like the summer sunburnt grasses. Your eyes are blue. Your skin is white.
(With absolute conviction.) You are the Sun Man.
Sun Man(With a shrug of shoulders.) Have it so. I come from the Sun. I am the Sun Man.
Red Cloud Do you carry the thunder in your hand?
Sun Man(Nonplussed for the moment, glances at his musket, then smiles.) Yes, I carry the thunder in my hand.
(War Chief and the Hunters leap suddenly from ambush. Sun Man warns Sea Cunies not to resist. War Chief captures and holds Sun Man, and Sea Cunies are similarly captured and held. Women and boys appear, and examine prisoners curiously.) War Chief Hoh! Hoh! Hoh! I have captured the Sun Man! Like the foxes, I have captured the Sun Man!—Deer Foot! Elk Man! The foxes held the Sun Man. I now hold the Sun Man. Then can you hold the Sun Man.
(Deer Foot and Elk Man seize the Sun Man.) Red Cloud(To Shaman.) He said he came in kindness.
War Chief(Sneering.) In kindness, with the thunder in his hand.
Shaman(Deflected to partisanship of War Chief by War Chief's success.) By his own lips has he said it, with the thunder in his hand.
War Chief You are the Sun Man.
Sun Man(Shrugging shoulders.) My names are many as the stars. Call me White Man.
Red Cloud I am Red Cloud, the first man.
Sun Man Then am I Adam, the first man and your brother.
(Glancing about.) And this is Eden, to look upon it.
Red Cloud My father was the Coyote.
Sun Man My father was Jehovah.
Red Cloud I am the Fire-Bringer. I stole the fire from the ground squirrel and hid it in the heart of the wood.
Sun Man Then am I Prometheus, your brother. I stole the fire from heaven and hid it in the heart of the wood.
Red Cloud I am the Acorn-Planter. I am the Food- Bringer, the Life-Maker. I make food for more life, ever more life.
Sun Man Then am I truly your brother. Life-Maker am I, tilling the soil in the sweat of my brow from the beginning of time, planting all manner of good seeds for the harvest.
(Looking sharply at Red Cloud's skin garments.) Also am I the Weaver and Cloth-Maker.
(Holding out arm so that Red Cloud may examine the cloth of the coat) From the hair of the goat and the wool of the sheep, and from beaten and spun grasses, do I make the cloth to keep man warm.
Shaman(Breaking in boastfully.) I am the Shaman. I know all secret things.
Sun Man I know my pathway under the sun over all the seas, and I know the secrets of the stars that show me my path where no path is. I know when the Wolf of Darkness shall eat the moon.
(Pointing toward moon.) On this night shall the Wolf of Darkness eat the moon.
(He turns suddenly to Red Cloud, drawing sheath-knife and passing it to him.) More, O First Man and Acorn-Planter. I am the Iron-Maker. Behold!
(Red Cloud examines knife, understands immediately its virtue, cuts easily a strip of skin from his skin garment, and is overcome with the wonder of the knife.) War Chief(Exhibiting a long bow.) I am the War Chief. No man, save me, has strength to bend this bow. I can slay farther than any man.
(A huge bear has come out among the bushes far up the hillside) Sun Man I, too, am War Chief over men, and I can slay farther than you.
War Chief Hoh! Hoh!
Sun Man(Pointing to bear) Can you slay that with your strong bow?