Читать книгу The Acorn-Planter - Джек Лондон, William Hootkins - Страница 2

     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.