unting!

{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.