rt 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
Nishinam in the lean years aforetime, when the
tribes not of the Nishinam passed like the dew
of the morning.

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

{Old Man}
In the famine in the old time,
When the old man was a young man,
When the heavens ceased from raining,
When the grasslands parched and withered,
When the fishes left the river,
And the wild meat died of sickness,
In the tribes that knew not acorns,
All their women went dry-breasted,
All their younglings chewed the deer-hides,
All their old men sighed and perished,
And the young men died beside them,
Till they died by tribe and totem,
And o'er all was death upon them.
Yet the Nishinam unvanquished,
Did not perish by the famine.
Oh, the acorns Red Cloud gave them!
Oh, the acorns Red Cloud taught them
How to store in willow baskets
'Gainst the time and need of famine!

{Shaman}
_(Who, throughout the Old Man's recital, has
nodded approbation, turning to Red
Cloud.)_

Sing to thy people, Red Cloud, the song of
life which is the song of the acorn.

{Red Cloud}
_(Making ready to begin)_
And which is the song of woman, O Shaman.

{Shaman}
_(Hushing the people to listen, solemnly)_
He sings with his father's lips, and with the
lips of his father's fathers to the beginning of time
and men.

SONG OF THE FIRST MAN

{Red Cloud}
I am Red Cloud,
The first man of the Nishinam.
My father was the Coyote.
My mother was the Moon.
The Coyote danced with the stars,
And wedded the Moon on a mid-summer night
The Coyote is very wise,
The Moon is very old,
Mine is his wisdom,
Mine is her age.
I am the first man.
I am the life-maker and the father of life.
I am the fire-bringer.
The Nishina