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.