PS 
 
 3511 
 
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 C3 
 
 1910 
 
 MAIN 
 
 IRLF 
 
 3 111 
 
 
FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 WILLIAM A. SETCHELL,i864-i943 
 
 PROFESSOR OF BOTANY 
 
QL 
 
 fl 1 
 
THE MIDSUMMER HIGH JINKS 
 OF THE BOHEMIAN CLUB 
 
 1910 
 
THE GROVE PLAY 
 
The Cave Man 
 
 A Play of the Redwoods 
 by 
 
 Charles K. Field 
 
 \\ 
 
 Music by 
 
 W. J. McCoy 
 
 Being the Thirty-third Midsummer High Jinks 
 
 of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, 
 
 as performed by Members of the Club, 
 
 in the Bohemian Grove, Sonoma 
 
 County, California, on 
 
 the Sixth Night 
 
 of August, 
 
 1910 
 
 CHARLES K. FIELD 
 
 SIRE 
 
C3 
 
 10 
 
 Mfti/0 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1910 
 
 BY THE 
 BOHEMIAN CLUB 
 
 T ? 
 
 
 / 
 
Foreword 
 
 The Grove Play of the Bohemian Club is the outgrowth of 
 an illuminated spectacle produced annually among redwood trees 
 in California. In The Man in the Forest, at the Midsummer 
 Jinks of 1902, this spectacle first became a play, the text being 
 the work of one author and the music the work of one composer. 
 Since then, the music drama has been steadily elaborated. Yet 
 it has been the aim, excepting the play of Montezuma (1903), 
 to produce a play inherently of the forest. 
 
 The Cave Man (1910) has its inspiration in the fact that 
 the sequoia groves of California, one of which the Bohemian 
 Club owns, are the only forests now existing that resemble the 
 forests of the cave man s day. While it has not yet been estab 
 lished that man of the cave type occupied this region of the earth, 
 migrations here bringing people possibly of a much more ad 
 vanced culture, it is sufficient for the purposes of the grove 
 dramatist to be able to present characters of the more ancient 
 type in a natural setting startlingly close to the original scenery 
 of the cave man s life. 
 
 No attempt has been made to reproduce the exact conditions 
 of speech, appearance, or musical expression. Simple language, 
 to set forth such ideas and passions as might make a presentable 
 play, has been employed and has been reinforced by interpre 
 tative music in the manner of today. Many thousands of years 
 of progress may lie, in reality, between the types exhibited in 
 this drama, yet, in the physical aspects of the life of these people, 
 care has been taken to exclude such anachronisms as the use of 
 the bow and arrow and the making of pictures on rock or in 
 carved bone accomplishments that post-dated the discovery of 
 fire by tens of thousands of years. The characters have been 
 costumed to suggest men of a primitive type, yet far removed 
 from the creature that was to evolve the gorilla of our day. 
 That creature, also a character in the drama, doubtless resembled 
 the cave man more nearly than his descendant resembles us. His 
 quest of the woman in the play is warranted by the reported 
 anxiety of modern Africans regarding their own women and 
 the gorilla. 
 
 The episode of the tar pool is based upon the recently reported 
 discoveries in a similar deposit, in California, where remarkably 
 frequent remains of the animals and birds named by Long Arm 
 in his narrative have been brought to light. To Dr. J. C. 
 Merriam, of the University of California, under whose direction 
 these discoveries have been reported, I am indebted for a sympa 
 thetic editing of the text of this play. 
 
 Vll 
 
I desire to record my gratitude to those members of the 
 Bohemian Club whose co-operation, well in accord with the 
 traditions which have made possible the club s admirable pro 
 ductions, has carried my dream of the cave man to fulfillment. 
 Mr. W. J. McCoy, already wearing the laurels of the 
 Hamadryads, undertook to express my play in music when the 
 task could be accomplished only by severe sacrifice. That he 
 has contributed to the musical treasures of the club a work 
 which, perhaps, excels his former composition is, I trust, some 
 measure of reward. Mr. Edward J. Duffey, the wizard of the 
 illuminated grove, has rendered service equally important to a 
 play whose action is written round the phenomenon of fire. Mr. 
 George E. Lyon, that rare combination of artist and carpenter, 
 with the assistance of Dr. Harry Carleton, has performed the 
 feat of making the hillside more beautiful, adding stage scenery 
 without sacrilege. To Mr. Frank L. Mathieu, veteran of many 
 battles with amateur talent, I am indebted for untiring super 
 vision of the production of the play and for valuable suggestions 
 in its arrangement. Mr. Porter Garnett, authority upon grove 
 plays and himself sire imminent, has proved his loyalty by work 
 ing all night upon the making of this book of the play. Mr. 
 J. de P. Teller has drilled two choirs in the difficult music of the 
 Epilogue. Mr. David Bispham, a new member of the club and 
 an artist of international fame, has shown himself imbued also 
 with the amateur spirit which is one of the important elements 
 in the grove play s charm. To the Board of Directors, and to 
 their immediate predecessors, with their respective Jinks Com 
 mittees, whose sympathy and aid under unusual circumstances 
 have made possible the Midsummer Jinks of 1910, and to all 
 the brothers in Bohemia who have joined me in the labor and 
 pleasure of that effort, I subscribe myself in sincere acknowledg 
 ment, 
 
 CHARLES K. FIELD. 
 
 Vlll 
 
The Story of The Play 
 
 Once upon a time, some tens of thousands of years ago, the 
 greater part of the northern hemisphere was covered with a 
 mighty forest of conifers. Its trees rose hundreds of feet in 
 height; their huge trunks, twenty and thirty feet through, were 
 shaggy with a reddish bark; between them grew smaller and 
 gentler trees, thick ferns and blossoming vines. Today, in the 
 sequoia groves of California stands all that is left of that 
 magnificent woodland. 
 
 On a memorable night, when the moon searched the deep 
 shadows of Bohemia s redwoods for memories of the past and 
 the mystery of night magnified our trees to the size of their 
 brethren in other groves, I sat with W . J. McCoy before the high 
 finks stage. Fancy has ever been stimulated by fact and we were 
 aware that we looked upon such a scene as the cave man knew. 
 And so in the moonlight we dreamed that the forest was still 
 growing in the comparative youth of mankind, that no light other 
 than the fires of heaven had ever shone in the grove, that the 
 man of that day wooed his mate and fought great beasts for 
 their raw flesh and made the first fire among those very trees. 
 
 The prehistoric forest was very dark and as dangerous as it 
 was dark. Therefore the cave men went into their caves when 
 daylight faded among the trees and they blocked the cave door 
 ways with great boulders and they slept soundly on leaves and 
 rushes until the daylight peeped through the chinks of the 
 boulders. One morning, Broken Foot, a big man with heavy 
 dark hair on his body and an expression that was not amiable 
 even for a cave man s face, rolled back the blocking of his cave 
 and crept cautiously out. It happened that a deer had chosen 
 to drink from a pool by Broken Foot s cave. A great stone broke 
 the neck of the luckless deer and the cave man breakfasted well. 
 
 As he sat there on the rocks, carving with his flint knife the 
 raw body of the deer, certain neighbors joined him, one by one. 
 They were Scar Face, a prodigious glutton but sharp witted and 
 inventive, Fish Eyes and Short Legs, young hunters with 
 
 IX 
 
specialties, and Wolf Skin, the father of Singing Bird, a much- 
 admired maiden just entering womanhood. Then ensued such 
 talk as belonged to that period stories of hunting, of escape 
 and also of discoveries. Many remarkable things were being put 
 forth in those days by the inquiring spirit of men, shells to hold 
 water, a log that would obey a man with a paddle, even a wolf 
 had been tamed and made a companion of a hunter. So the 
 morning passed in interesting discussion and all would have been 
 harmonious in the little group before Broken Foot s cave had 
 not Short Legs listened eagerly to Wolf Skin s description of 
 his daughter and announced his intention of mating with her. 
 As he rose to seek the girl, Broken Foot knocked him down 
 with a sudden blow and bade him think no more of the cave 
 maiden. At this, Short Legs, although no match for the great 
 bully, burst out with a torrent of abuse, calling Broken Foot many 
 unpleasant names, and Fish Eyes, his inseparable friend, came 
 to his aid with more unflattering words, even accusing Broken 
 Foot of murdering his brother to get his cave and his mate. 
 Broken Foot, making ready to seek the girl, listened indifferently 
 to this tirade until Short Legs called him a coward. 
 
 Earlier in the day Wolf Skin had told of meeting a stranger 
 in the forest, a young man who carried a singular weapon, made 
 of both wood and stone. This stranger had inquired for the 
 cave of Broken Foot, a man who dragged one foot as he walked. 
 Short Legs accused Broken Foot of running away from this new 
 comer. This was too much. Broken Foot, already part way up 
 the hill on his way to Singing Bird, turned back toward the cave 
 men threateningly. Just then a young man came along a higher 
 path. He looked down on the man who dragged one foot as 
 he walked. With a terrible cry of rage he leaped down the hill. 
 Broken Foot, with his great strength, had been the champion of 
 those woods for years. But Long Arm, the stranger, carried the 
 first stone axe, and under this new weapon Broken Foot went 
 down into the dead leaves. 
 
 Then, of course, the whole story came out. The young 
 stranger proved to be the son of the man whom Broken Foot had 
 murdered. The boy had been with the two men at the time. 
 The scene of the murder was a small lake into which tar con 
 tinually oozed, making a sticky trap for all sorts of wild animals. 
 A similar place exists in California today, where animals are 
 caught, and geologists have found in the ground there great 
 quantities of bones of prehistoric animals, the sabretooth tigers 
 and the great wolves of the cave man s day. Here was enacted 
 the tragedy of which Long Arm tells. The boy got away and 
 was reared by the Shell People on their mounds beside the sea. 
 
He had invented a new weapon and now he had come back into 
 the forest to kill Broken Foot and to get again the cave of his 
 father. 
 
 Long Arm was kindly welcomed by the cave men. They had 
 no love for the dead bully and they respected a good fight. So 
 the boy was welcomed home again. Yet the greeting held a note 
 of warning in it. Old One Eye, fleeing through the forest, told 
 them that the terrible man-beast was again roving through the 
 trees. The cave men did not know that this creature was but 
 the ancestor of the gorilla of today. To them he was a man 
 who seemed to be a beast. They could not understand him but 
 they knew that he was larger than any other man and stronger 
 than all of them together, and they gave him a wide berth. 
 
 Long Arm was left alone in the cave he had regained. He 
 sat on the rocks, in the pleasant shade of the trees, and chipped 
 away at the edge of his flint axe. He was very well satisfied 
 with himself and he sang a kind of exultant song in tribute to 
 the weapon that had served him so well. As he worked and sang 
 the sparks flew from the flint and by one of those chances which 
 have made history from the dawn of time, some dry grass was 
 kindled. No one in the world had made fire before that day. 
 Long Arm saw what he thought was some bright new kind of 
 serpent. He struck it a fatal blow with his axe and picked it up ; 
 it bit him and with a cry he shook it from his hand. Chances go 
 in pairs, sometimes. The burning twig fell into a little pool and 
 was extinguished. Long Arm observed and studied all this, a 
 very much puzzled but interested young man. Then occurred 
 one of those moments that have lifted men above the brutes. 
 Long Arm struck his flints together and made fire again and man 
 has been repeating and improving that process ever since. 
 
 That was destined to be a red-letter day, if we may use such 
 a calendar term, in the life of that young cave man. He had got 
 his cave again and he had discovered something that would make 
 it the best home in all the world, yet it was not complete. And 
 just then he heard Wolf Skin s daughter singing among the trees. 
 Long Arm dropped his new toy and it burned out on the rock. 
 He hid behind a great tree and watched. Singing Bird came, 
 unsuspecting, down the path. One of the pools near the cave 
 was quiet and the young girl was not proof against the allure 
 ment of this mirror. She had twined some blossoms in her hair 
 and she was enjoying the reflection when Long Arm stole toward 
 her. But she saw his reflection too, in time to leap away from 
 him. Then Long Arm wooed her instead of following to take 
 her by force, for that was not at all a certainty, since she might 
 easily outrun him. So he told her of himself and his stone axe 
 and his victory and his cave, making it all as attractive as possible 
 and at last he told her of the fire and made it before her eyes 
 with his sparking flints. Singing Bird was deeply impressed by 
 
 XI 
 
all these things and by the confident manner of Long Arm, and 
 especially by the bright new plaything, and she came gradually 
 nearer to see these wonders. 
 
 Then suddenly the man-beast came upon the two, and the 
 woman leaped in terror to the arms of the man. The man-beast 
 barred the way to the cave. Then Long Arm braved him, though 
 it meant death, that the girl might flee. The man-beast seized 
 Long Arm s boasted axe and snapped it like a twig. Then he 
 grasped the man and proceeded to crush him in his hairy hold. 
 But the girl, under the spell of her new love, had run but a 
 little way and then, in spite of her terror, turned to look back. 
 She shrieked wildly at Long Arm s peril and the great beast 
 threw the man aside and came after the girl. She tried desperately 
 to evade him and to get to the narrow door of the cave. Mean 
 while Long Arm had been only stunned. Recovering, he saw the 
 firebrand burning where he had dropped it on the rocks. He 
 seized it, remembering its bite, and again attacked the man-beast. 
 Here was something new, and very terrible. No animal, from 
 that day to this, has stood against fire. The man-beast fled into 
 the forest. 
 
 Then Long Arm came back in triumph. Wonderful days fol 
 lowed, with the happy discovery of cooked meat, and the tragedy 
 of a forest fire, but through all their lives Long Arm and Singing 
 Bird remembered this day when, in the joy of their escape from 
 death and under the spell of the woodland in springtime, they 
 began their life together in the cave. 
 
 Xll 
 
Persons in the Play 
 
 BROKEN FOOT Henry A. Melvin 
 
 SCAR FACE: Waldemar Young 
 
 SHORT LEGS ... Spenser Grant 
 
 FISH EYES Orrin A. Wilson 
 
 WOLF SKIN .......:... Frank P. Deering 
 
 LONG ARM David Bispham 
 
 ONE EYE Harry A. Russell 
 
 SINGING BIRD . . . . . . . . . Richard Hotaling 
 
 THE MAN-BEAST Amedee Joullin 
 
 THE WOMAN S VOICE Wyndham Medcraft 
 
 Cave men, women and children 
 
 SCENE: A sequoia forest. 
 
 TIME: From dawn till midnight, about fifty thousand years ago. 
 
 Persons in the Epilogue 
 
 FIRST VOICE Vail Bakewell 
 
 SECOND VOICE . Edward H. Hamilton 
 
 THE MASTER Frederick J. Koster 
 
 CHOIR OF SPIRITUAL VOICES. 
 CHORUS OF MANKIND. 
 
 Shepherds, Farmers, Warriors and Philosophers 
 
The stage directed by Frank L. Mathieu. The scene and 
 properties designed and built by George E. Lyon. The lighting 
 and fire effects devised and executed by Edward J. Duffy. The 
 costumes prepared by Goldstein & Co., under the supervision of 
 John C. Merritt. The calcium lights managed by F. W. French. 
 
 The music, conducted by the composer, rendered by the fol 
 lowing forces : 
 
 A chorus of sixty-five voices, consisting of seventeen first 
 tenors, sixteen second tenors, sixteen first basses, and sixteen 
 second basses, recruited from the membership of the club. 
 
 A choir of fifteen boys, recruited from the vested choirs of 
 St. John s Church, Oakland, and Christ Church, Alameda. 
 
 An orchestra of sixty instruments, distributed as follows: 
 
 Ten first violins, eight second violins, six violas, six cellos, 
 six double basses, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, English 
 horn, two bassoons, four trumpets, four horns, three trombones, 
 harp, tuba, tympani and drums. 
 
 JOHN DE P. TELLER, Chorus Master. 
 JOHN JOSEPHS, Concert Master. 
 
 xiv 
 
Plan of the Music 
 
 1 PRELUDE. 
 
 2 THE FIGHT BETWEEN LONG ARM AND BROKEN FOOT 
 
 3 LONG ARM S STORY OF THE TAR POOL 
 
 4 THE SONG OF THE FLINT 
 
 5 LONG ARM S DISCOVERY OF FIRE. 
 
 6 THE SPRING SONG OF THE CAVE MAIDEN 
 
 7 LONG ARM S BATTLE WITH THE MAN-BEAST 
 
 8 THE SONG OF MATING 
 
 9 INTERMEZZO THE DANCE OF THE FIREFLIES 
 
 10 THE MAN-BEAST S CAPTURE OF SINGING BIRD 
 
 11 THE RESCUE 
 
 12 THE FOREST FIRE 
 
 The Epilogue 
 
 13 CHOIR OF SPIRITUAL VOICES 
 
 14 THE SONG OF THE STAR 
 
 15 CHORUS: THE MARCH OF THE DAWN 
 
The Cave Man 
 
 (The scene is a forested hillside in the geological period pre 
 ceding the present, some tens of thousands of years ago. The 
 landscape is black with night, but between the treetops are 
 glimpses of the stars. The orchestral introduction is in keeping 
 with the darkness; it suggests the chill of an era when fire is 
 unknown, and the terror that pervades the prehistoric forest at 
 night. Into the glimpses of sky at the top of the hill comes the 
 Hush of dawn. The red fades into blue and light comes through 
 the forest, progressively down the hillside. The radiance of 
 morning discloses a grove of giant conifers, rich in ferns and in 
 blossoming vines; it is spring in the forest. Rock outcrops from 
 the lower parts of the hillside and a small stream plashes into a 
 succession of pools; at the base of the hill the rock appears as a 
 great ledge, the upper portion of which overhangs. Small plants 
 cling to the uneven face of the cliff and young trees stand along 
 its rim. Under the overhanging ledge there is a narrow entrance, 
 closed with two boulders, that is high enough to admit a man 
 stooping slightly. The ground immediately before the cave is 
 level, but soon drops in a succession of ledges to a plateau nlled 
 with ferns and boulders through which the stream flows. Blossom 
 ing plants edge the pools and the lower and larger pool has tall 
 reeds, tules, and ferns about it. The stream continues on to a 
 river that runs westward to the sea. 
 
 Act I. 
 
 As the orchestral prelude concludes, the morning light has 
 struck upon the entrance to the cave and the boulders with which 
 it is closed are moved cautiously aside. BROKEN FOOT, the man 
 of the cave, is aware of day. His figure is dimly seen in the 
 entrance. He emerges and stands before the cave, listening. 
 The light grows. BROKEN FOOT suddenly crouches, gazing in 
 tently at the lower pool. The tall rushes quiver and a stag s head 
 emerges from them. The stag drinks. BROKEN FOOT picks up 
 a stone and creeps forward. He hurls the stone upon the stag. 
 The animal, struck fairly, crashes back among the rushes and 
 the stone caroms into the pool with a great splash. BROKEN FOOT 
 
THE CAVEMAN 
 
 utters a cry and leaps into the rushes. They quiver with a struggle 
 from which BROKEN FOOT emerges, dragging the limp body of 
 the stag. He pulls the carcass up over the rocks to the level 
 before the cave and throws it down with a grunt of triumph. 
 The orchestral prelude ends. BROKEN FOOT hunts for an edged 
 stone and, finding one, begins to cut at the deer. He first jabs 
 at the throat and sucks the warm blood. The red shows upon his 
 hands and beard. He cuts at the body of the stag. 
 
 SCAR FACE, rather fat for a cave man, enters upon the hill. 
 He squats and observes BROKEN FOOT. The men are brown- 
 skinned, with short rough hair and beards, and wide noses; they 
 are hairy on chest, back and limbs, and are girded with animal 
 pelts.) 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : A-a-a ! The stone is dull, the skin tougher than 
 wood. If the flesh matches it, I have made a 
 poor kill. 
 
 (ScAR FACE lets a feiv loose stones fall over 
 the cliff. At their clatter BROKEN FOOT springs 
 up in alarm and grasps the stag by the antlers.) 
 
 SCAR FACE : Broken Foot s knife is of little use to him. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT: And less use to you. The meat is mine, Scar 
 Face. Go kill your own eating. 
 
 SCAR FACE : And if I do kill I have a knife that will cut my 
 food. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Give it to me. 
 
 SCAR FACE : The knife is mine as the meat is yours. Look 
 you, Broken Foot, let my knife cut your meat 
 for us both. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : What kind of knife is it stone ? 
 
 SCAR FACE : Sharper than ever stone was ! I ll come down 
 there and you shall see. 
 
 (He descends from the cliff by a path among 
 the trees.) 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : If it is not keen you shall have none of this meat. 
 
 SCAR FACE: (pausing in his descent) See! was ever stone 
 so sharp as the knife I have? This has done 
 bloody work in its time, men s blood, too. Do 
 you know who used it? 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : I cannot see from here. Come down. 
 SCAR FACE: Your pledge that you will not fight for it? 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Aye. 
 
 (ScAR FACE comes dozvn and shozvs his knife 
 to BROKEN FOOT.) 
 
 The sabre tooth! 
 
 SCAR FACE : I found the white bones bleaching in the sun. 
 The other tooth was missing, broken off close, 
 perhaps in the tiger s last fight. With a stone 
 and much care I got this safely off the skull. 
 Now it works in my hand as it served the beast 
 once. See, how it cuts ! 
 
 (ScAR FACE attacks the stag s carcass eagerly. 
 BROKEN FOOT watches moodily, then joins him, 
 crouching over the meat. They take pieces and 
 eat.) 
 
 SCAR FACE : The meat is good. 
 BROKEN FOOT : Give me the knife. 
 
 SCAR FACE : No; there will be more meat to cut, I hope. But 
 I will give you another thing. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : What ? 
 
 SCAR FACE: ; I will tell you something. It is a great thing 
 that I have found. Often you have waked in 
 the cave, before the light creeps through the 
 door cracks, and been thirsty? 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Aye, well ! 
 
 SCAR FACE: The night was still and you could hear the water 
 falling o-iatside in the darkness. And you grew 
 more .thirsty, hearing it call to you and mock 
 you because you- could not go out to it and 
 drink, for it was night and no man may stir 
 from the safety of the cave after nightfall. Eh? 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : You have many words, Scar Face, but no news. 
 
 SCAR FACE : Once I had none, like you. I, too, listened with 
 dry throat and waited for the day. But not 
 now ! 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : O ho, now you come out into the darkness and 
 all the forest is afraid of you, because of your 
 knife the lions and wolves, even, go running, 
 thinking you are old Sabre Tooth himself? Am 
 I a cub that you give me such words ? 
 
 (ScAR FACE laughs teasingly and BROKEN 
 FOOT rages.) 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Here ! I have killed this meat for myself, yet 
 I had rather your mouth were filled with it 
 than with such talk. 
 
 SCAR FACE : Before I fill it my talk shall pay you. Hear me. 
 All your life you have seen the great gourd 
 hanging upon the forest vines; you have known 
 that when it dries the gourd is hollow but for 
 the seeds that rattle in it. And all your life 
 you have seen how the rain lies in the hollow 
 places in the rocks until the sun drinks it. But 
 Broken Foot, the great fighter with sharp 
 stones, he has never thought to himself: "Water 
 will stand in the hollow gourd if I fill it at the 
 stream and take it to the cave." No, he is a 
 great man among the caves, but he lies awake 
 thirsty through the night while Scar Face 
 drinks when he will! 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : (pondering) Aye, it is true, I never thought of 
 that! 
 
 SCAR FACE : See there, two hunters from the river. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Short Legs is one of them ; I know him by his 
 walk. 
 
 SCAR FACE : The other is he that has eyes like a fish and 
 swims like one. Those two hunt together al 
 ways. 
 
 (FisH EYES and SHORT LEGS enter down 
 stage with fish and game.) 
 
 They have hunted well, this morning. Their 
 hands are filled with something. Hi-i ! 
 (The tzvo hunters pause.) 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Why do you call them ? 
 
 SCAR FACE : Hi, cave men, what kill so early ? 
 
 FISH EYES : The great black fish, father of them all. After 
 many days of trying I have caught him. 
 
 SHORT LEGS : And a white swan that I struck fairly with a 
 stone cast from shore. 
 
 SCAR FACE : I have the keenest knife of all the forest a 
 sabre tooth. It cuts easily through fish scale 
 and feathers. Let us share what we have. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Ho, have you not filled your belly with my meat ? 
 
 SCAR FACE : But it was only meat. And here is fish and 
 water-fowl as well. You too shall share them. 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 See, here is the knife and meat I have cut with 
 it. 
 
 (SCAR FACE;, with a hunk cut from the deer, 
 comes down to the newcomers. The three 
 gather on some rocks and proceed to share the 
 food. BROKEN FOOT watches them, then comes 
 down, glowering, with meat in his hand.) 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Why do you hunt together always ? 
 
 SHORT LEGS: We need each other. I can cast a stone 
 straighter than the white owl falls upon the 
 willow-grouse or the ripe nut drops to the 
 ground. I lie quiet by the water s edge and 
 when the ducks come near shore, not too near, 
 for I can throw far, I cast the stone that leaves 
 one always floating when the others rise from 
 the water with splashing feet. But there the 
 bird floats and I am on the shore, for I am a 
 poor swimmer. 
 
 FISH EYES : The otter is no better swimmer than I. The 
 bottom of the river is as clear to me as rocks 
 through air. And I can stop breathing I can 
 follow the fish into their hiding places under the 
 elder roots. That is how I got this old fellow 
 there, that Scar Face is leaving the backbone 
 of! 
 
 SCAR FACE : I could get Short Legs ducks for him without 
 swimming. 
 
 FISH EYES : Huh ! You would make the sound that the duck 
 makes, now that it is the mating season, and 
 they would swim into your hands. But when 
 Short Legs hits one with a stone it cares no 
 more for mating! 
 
 SCAR FACE: No. I understand many things that you do 
 not, Web-foot ! You have never yet made a 
 mating noise of any kind. 
 
 FISH EYES: The noise you make is 
 
 SCAR FACE: Let us not quarrel; we have eaten too well. I 
 will tell you something. Yesterday I sat upon 
 a log that floated in a little bay. My weight 
 loosened it from the grasses that held it and 
 the moving water carried me away from the 
 bank. It was no new thing for me to float 
 down the river. It is much better than walking 
 over rough paths. But as I floated slowly I 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 could see along the bank a mass of berries, 
 turning red even now, though the season is but 
 new. My lips watered for them, but I was 
 floating past them. Then I found a strange 
 thing. My leg had slipped into the water on 
 the further side of the log. As it did so, the 
 log turned slightly toward those berries. I 
 tried that leg again and then that arm, and the 
 log obeyed me and I stained my mouth with 
 the cool sweet blood of those berries. If you 
 will kill a duck for me, Short Legs, I will show 
 you how I can float out and get it. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : In the matter of the gourd I believe you, Scar 
 Face, but Short Legs will go hungry for ducks 
 if he trusts to your swimming log. For my 
 part, I shall do as Left Hand did with the 
 young timber wolf. He killed a she wolf once 
 and took a she cub to his cave and tied her 
 there. It was a strange fancy. We have 
 troubles enough outside our caves without 
 bringing them in. Yet the young wolf grew 
 gentle and seldom offered to bite him, though 
 he did not trust her. Later he let her go, when 
 she was large, and the wolves came to the cave s 
 mouth in the mating season, but she kept in the 
 forest near him and he never harmed her. 
 More than that, he gave her meat when he had 
 plenty. She had young, and Left Hand again 
 took one to his cave. Then she went away tak 
 ing the other cub. But Left Hand s wolf 
 grew friendly from the first and now they hunt 
 together like men. Left Hand stuns or kills 
 the game and the wolf fetches it from where it 
 falls. 
 
 FISH EYES : If it were not Broken Foot, the man who fights 
 so well with the stone dagger, one might say 
 his story is like those that One Eye, the gray 
 haired, tells to boys before his son s cave. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : My story is true, you water-weed. And the 
 tales of One Eye are true, at least those stories 
 of the great beasts of long ago. I myself have 
 seen the enormous bones washed out of the hill 
 side that winter when the rain fell from the sky 
 like a river down a cliff. 
 
 SCAR FACE : One Eye s tales are well enough for old men 
 who are through with a man s life and for boys 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 who have not begun. One Eye lives in a past 
 that is so much better than today I am sorry 
 I was born so late. Nothing is so good to 
 One Eye now as it was once. To me this 
 forest seems very good. Surely it is much more 
 comfortable than when those monster bones had 
 flesh on them ! But One Eye says the forest 
 is changing sadly; it is not what it was when 
 he was young! 
 
 SHORT LEGS : I have heard One Eye tell his stories and I 
 believe he did those deeds in the same way that 
 I have had fine long legs and run like a deer and 
 done great hunting. But it was only at night 
 in the cave when I was asleep. 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Scar Face is so wise and knows so many 
 things, he can tell us how it is we do such 
 deeds at night, how we travel into other forests 
 and kill tigers without leaving the safe warm 
 cave. 
 
 SCAR FACE : The deeds you speak of are dreams. All people 
 do those things. 
 
 SHORT LEGS : Where are the places we visit and why are we 
 always in the cave just where we lay down 
 before we see them? 
 
 SCAR FACE : If I told you, you would not understand, for 
 you go to the pool to drink when you are 
 thirsty and you swim in the cold water to get 
 a wounded duck, I am different from you. But 
 I will tell you this much. I knew a man who 
 had traveled farther from our cave country 
 than any other we have known. He told me 
 once that he had come into a great wide land 
 where there were no trees, where all was sand 
 such as the river leaves when it grows small 
 under the sun. And as he journeyed in this 
 strange land he saw ahead of him a quiet lake 
 fringed with trees and rushes and with water 
 fowl circling over it. He went forward eagerly, 
 for his throat was hot, but as he hastened the 
 lake faded suddenly and there was nothing there 
 but sand. Yet it was daylight and he was awake 
 and running. It is the same with dreams. 
 
 (WoLF SKIN enters high on the hill. He 
 pauses and looks down upon the group. He 
 carries big game over his shoulder. Around his 
 loins he has the gray pelt of a timber wolf.) 
 
8 
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 FISH EYES : 
 WOLF SKIN : 
 
 SCAR FACE: : 
 BROKEN FOOT 
 
 WOLF SKIN : 
 
 SCAR FACE : 
 WOLF SKIN : 
 
 BROKEN FOOT 
 WOLF SKIN : 
 
 SCAR FACE : 
 WOLF SKIN : 
 
 See, there is Wolf Skin upon the hill. Ai-i-i, 
 what game did you get? 
 
 I have killed a young boar. He will make juicy 
 eating in the cave, yet he got blood from me 
 ere I killed him. 
 
 Rest here with us! 
 
 Aye, Wolf Skin, do not take the boar meat 
 to your cave. Scar Face has a sabre tooth and 
 a belly like the tiger s, never filled. Share with 
 him. 
 
 I share my meat with no one but my own. My 
 cave is not like that of Scar Face. He lets his 
 mate hunt for him and feed him like a wide- 
 mouthed nestling. Nor do I hunt for my own 
 eating merely, like Fish Eyes and Short Legs, 
 who have no mates ; they have mated with each 
 other for sake of food. I have a daughter in 
 my cave; she is fleet and strong, grown to a 
 woman now, but she shall not kill her own meat 
 while Wolf Skin has his hunting strength. 
 
 In these soft words of greeting you have had 
 none for Broken Foot, whose cave is empty. 
 
 For Broken Foot I have words more near. I 
 have news for him. 
 
 Let me have it now. 
 
 Singing Bird will be kept waiting, yet I will 
 stop to tell you. 
 (He descends.) 
 
 Before long, Singing Bird will look for her 
 food from hands she will like better. 
 (pausing) That time has come, already. Once 
 the girl would shrink into the shadow when a 
 man stopped by our cave. When I asked her 
 to bring food to the stranger in token of friend 
 ship, she would fetch it shyly, without looking in 
 the stranger s eyes, and when she had given it 
 to him she would draw back swiftly into the 
 cave and the song that is ever upon her lips 
 would be hushed like that of a bird darkened 
 by the hawk s shadow. It is not so now. She 
 draws near, though she trembles, and her eyes 
 are bright and fixed upon the stranger s face 
 and the song goes on under her breath, as 
 though it ran in her blood like the song of the 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 9 
 
 SCAR FACE : 
 WOLF SKIN : 
 
 BROKEN FOOT 
 
 WOLF SKIN 
 
 brook there. And she goes far from the cave s 
 mouth, too distant for a maiden in our danger 
 ous woods. When I have been hunting far 
 from our cave in flower-sprinkled glades I have 
 heard her song as she wandered, forgetful of 
 danger. It is not good that she should be so 
 careless of her life. Yet what is to be done? 
 The woods are alive with the mating of birds 
 and beasts; it is the love season, and my cave 
 must lose her as that other cave lost her mother 
 the day I took my mate. 
 
 Is this the news you bring Broken Foot? 
 
 (comes down) That news is for the man whom 
 Singing Bird will let take her from my cave. 
 My words for Broken Foot touch him alone. 
 Listen ! Yesterday, as the sun sank toward the 
 hilltop, I heard my daughter singing in the 
 woods. Suddenly the song ceased and I heard 
 her running through the ferns. Fearful that 
 some beast had braved the daylight to follow 
 her, waked by her foolish song, I sprang after 
 her. As I turned through the trees, I came on 
 a young fellow, unknown in these caves. In 
 one hand he bore a weapon, new to me; it was 
 both wood and stone. He faced me without 
 show of fight. "I frightened her," he said. He 
 spoke straightforwardly and without evil. "I 
 frightened her/ he said again, "and gladly 
 would I have followed her to see if I might take 
 her, for I have seen no such maiden among the 
 Shell People. But I must finish other hunting 
 first. I would find the cave by the dropping 
 water where Broken Foot lives, a man who 
 drags one foot as he walks. Point me there." 
 He would say nothing more, but questioned me 
 again, and I asked no further and told him of 
 this place. It may be my news is old. Has he 
 been here? 
 
 None but these mighty hunters who have stopped 
 to talk like women on my rocks. I shall be 
 glad of a real man, if he be one, though I have 
 no quarrel with the father of Singing Bird. 
 
 She ^may well quarrel with me if I keep the 
 boar s meat from her for so long a time. See, 
 the great clouds gather across the sun. There 
 may be water falling and mighty roaring of the 
 
10 
 
 THE 1 C A .VE-M AN 
 
 sky creatures. My cave is dry and waiting. 
 (He ascends.) Good hunting to you all and no 
 more dangerous growl than mine ! 
 (He goes azvay through the trees.) 
 
 SCAR FACE : Let him growl as he will. I would growl too 
 if I had to do all the hunting for my cave. Red 
 Hair makes my cave comfortable, save when 
 she rages. She likes hunting and I like eating. 
 We get on very well. My she cubs shall be 
 taught to make themselves useful and worth 
 mating with. I want something more than sing 
 ing when I am hungry. Yet Wolf Skin s girl 
 can be taught if any of you are thinking of her. 
 
 FISH EYES : Not I. I never longed to be tied to one cave. I 
 like to wander as I will, without wife and young 
 ones to bring me back at evening. I like to eat 
 my kill somewhere near where I find it, not 
 carry it home. 
 
 SHORT LEGS : I would rather not wander at all. The cave of 
 Scar Face is the kind for me. There was a girl 
 in Split Beard s cave that was a good hunter. 
 I should have liked to have her, but Stone Arm 
 took her. Scar Face says Singing Bird can be 
 taught. That is so. I will teach her and we 
 shall have a cave together. That will be better 
 than trying to keep up with Fish Eyes who 
 walks too fast. I will go after her now. 
 
 (He rises and BROKEN FOOT, springing up, 
 fells him.) 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Teach dead ducks to swim ashore ! Singing 
 Bird comes to this cave and to none other. 
 There I shall hang what you have left of my 
 kill, and she and I shall finish it together when 
 I have brought her home. 
 
 (BROKEN FOOT, returning up the rocks, picks 
 up remainder of the stag and goes into his cave. 
 SHORT LEGS rises and rages against him.) 
 
 SHORT LEGS: Cave bully! Cripple! Robber of dead men s 
 caves ! Where is your other mate, the wife of 
 your brother? Why does she not work for you 
 now and take your blows? When Singing Bird 
 sees your limping foot she will run from you 
 laughing. 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 11 
 
 (During this tirade, BROKEN FOOT has come 
 from his cave and calmly rolled the boulders 
 before it. He places a great stone dagger in 
 his belt and starts indifferently up the hill.) 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : Let the maiden look upon your beautiful legs 
 and she will know that she need not run from 
 you. 
 
 FISH EYES : (advancing to the support of his friend) His legs 
 have never carried him into a stolen cave ! 
 Where is Heavy Hand, your brother, who once 
 lived there? Where is the boy who went hunt 
 ing with the two of you when you came home 
 alone? Stories of tigers! Tell them to Wolf 
 Skin when you take his daughter. It may be 
 that you hunt for the last time today. 
 (ScAR FACE is asleep upon the rocks.) 
 [Music The theme of BROKEN FOOT, chang 
 ing to that of LONG ARM.] 
 
 SHORT LEGS : No, Broken Foot only pretends to go wooing. 
 He is running away from the stranger who 
 seeks the cave of the man that drags one foot 
 as he walks. 
 
 (BROKEN FOOT turns on them angrily. As 
 
 he does so, LONG ARM enters rapidly on the 
 
 upper path and stops short at the sight of the 
 men below him.) 
 
 BROKEN FOOT : You crawling worm ! I run from no man. If 
 I meet the stranger he shall step aside, or he 
 shall learn that no one stands in the way when 
 Broken Foot seeks his mate. 
 
 (During the last of this dialogue, LONG ARM 
 has stood listening intently. BROKEN FOOT, far 
 above the others, has his back turned to the hill 
 side. BROKEN FOOT laughs scornfully, and, 
 turning along the path, begins the limping walk 
 that characterises him. LONG ARM gives a great 
 cry of -recognition and rage, and springs down 
 the hill. BROKEN FOOT takes a position and 
 squares himself for combat. Their battle follows. 
 It is the unequal struggle of the missile and the 
 knife against the axe. BROKEN FOOT has his 
 iveapon dashed from his hand by the strange 
 weapon of the newcomer and LONG ARM S axe 
 descends crashing through the skull of his 
 
12 THECAVEMAN 
 
 antagonist. BROKEN FOOT crumples up in 
 
 silence. LONG ARM, with a yell of triumph, 
 
 seizes his body, holds it in air, and then throivs 
 
 it headlong down the hill; looking after it, he 
 
 becomes aware of the witnesses whom he has 
 
 forgotten in his excitement. There is a tense 
 
 pause, then LONG ARM speaks.) 
 LONG ARM : Hear me, 
 
 Men of the tree-caves; 
 
 I have killed Broken Foot; 
 
 Hear why I killed him, 
 
 Hear me, and judge 
 
 Whether we fight 
 
 Or be friends. 
 FISH EYES : What name was given you ; where is your cave ? 
 
 (XoNG ARM descends a little) 
 LONG ARM : I am called Long Arm, 
 
 Named from this weapon 
 
 Which I have made. 
 
 I am come hither 
 
 From the vast water 
 
 Where the sun dives 
 
 And all night swims under 
 
 Till in the morning 
 
 He comes up through the hills. 
 
 Yet in my early days 
 
 I have beheld the sun 
 
 Sink into yonder hill, 
 
 Yea, from this very cave 
 
 Men of the mighty trees, 
 
 I am come home again ! 
 
 I am the son of him 
 
 Once they called Heavy Hand ; 
 
 Born in that shelter there, 
 
 Fed from these teeming woods, 
 
 Cooled by this little stream 
 
 Now will you hear me, 
 
 Hear why I came again, 
 
 Came home to kill? 
 
 When I saw Broken Foot 
 
 Limp from his stolen cave, 
 
 Only my comrade, 
 
 My weapon, spoke for me, 
 
 Swift words, without answer! 
 
 Yet, unto you, 
 
 As unto brothers 
 
 Gathered together 
 
THECAVEMAN 13 
 
 In the cave s quiet, 
 
 Now would I speak 
 
 Bidding my weapon 
 
 Among you be still. 
 
 I would be friends with you. 
 
 (He throws down his stone axe, leaving him 
 self unarmed.) 
 
 Say, will you hear? 
 
 (They do not pick up the weapon, but gesture 
 to proceed. LONG ARM comes nearer.) 
 
 I was a boy here 
 
 Under these trees ! 
 
 No one in all the wood 
 
 Had such a cave as we ; 
 
 Room to stand up in it, 
 
 Dry through the times of rain, 
 
 Narrow the mouth of it, 
 
 Choked with great boulders, 
 
 All of my father s strength 
 
 Needed to move them 
 
 Morning and night; 
 
 That is the cave there, 
 
 I have come home! 
 
 Here we lived happily, 
 
 Proud of our cave, 
 
 Proud of my father s strength, 
 
 Glad of the game he killed, 
 
 And my mother was deft, 
 
 Taking the skins he brought, 
 
 Scraping the blood side, 
 
 Fastening the edges, 
 
 So she made clothes. 
 
 Joyful my father brought 
 
 Beasts from the forest; 
 
 Sure was his aim 
 
 With the stones that he threw; 
 
 Mighty the skull-crashing 
 
 Blows he could deal with them; 
 
 All of the cave men 
 
 Knew and feared Heavy Hand; 
 
 Greatly I loved him, 
 
 He was my father. 
 
 You that remember him 
 Know how he went away 
 
14 THECAVEMAN 
 
 And came not again. 
 
 He that lies yonder 
 
 Where I have thrown him 
 
 For the night beasts to clear away, 
 
 Broken Foot, the false brother, 
 
 He might have told the tale ; 
 
 Blood fills his mouth now, 
 
 Spilled from his cloven skull ; 
 
 The boy has come home ! 
 
 Then let me tell. 
 
 (He comes down to the others and sits zvith 
 them.) 
 
 Season of winter rain, 
 Season of summer sun, 
 They had gone over us, 
 Both for each finger 
 Here on my hands, 
 There, by the pool s edge, 
 One day my father sat 
 Shaping a stone 
 Into a weapon 
 Fit for his hand. 
 Near, on a sunny rock, 
 Sprawling I lay, 
 Rapt in a child s play 
 I was a lizard, 
 Flat in the sun, 
 There, as my father wrought, 
 To him came Broken Foot, 
 Brothers they were, 
 Cave-born together, 
 Sharing their mother s milk, 
 Tearing the meat 
 Their father had killed for them 
 Ere they could kill ; 
 So they had grown up, 
 Mated and parted ; 
 Yet ever my father, 
 Here in the cave he found, 
 Welcomed his brother, 
 Sharing our beds of leaves, 
 Sharing his kill ; 
 Hear how he paid ! 
 Making his weapon, 
 Here by the pool s edge, 
 To him came Broken Foot, 
 Hiding his evil thoughts. 
 Greatly he coveted 
 
THE CAVE M A N 15 
 
 The warmth of our cave, 
 
 Hot was his lust 
 
 For the arms of my mother; 
 
 So with a snake s tongue 
 
 He came to my father, 
 
 Calling him brother, 
 
 Told of a wondrous place 
 
 Where there was food. 
 
 Far did it lie from here, 
 
 Far in an open land, 
 
 Out of the trees; 
 
 Where he had learned of it 
 
 Never I knew, 
 
 But as he told of it, 
 
 Wide-eyed and breathless 
 
 Marked I this tale. 
 
 [The orchestra here begins a musical accom 
 paniment to the narrative.] 
 There was a snare set, 
 Not by the hands of men! 
 Huge it was spread 
 Over that open land; 
 Out of the marshy ground, 
 Black as a starless night, 
 Oozed up a sticky slime 
 At the edge of a pool. 
 As from the tree trunks 
 Under the noonday sun 
 The tree blood oozes, 
 Sticky and warm, 
 And little flying things, lighting, 
 Are caught there to die, 
 So said Broken Foot 
 Then to my father, 
 Birds and beasts 
 Whose flesh is our food, 
 Coming to drink there 
 Are snared in the tar ! 
 Rabbits and squirrels, 
 The big wading heron, 
 The bison and camel, 
 Even the deer, 
 Fleeter than all, 
 Fast were they held there, 
 Rooted like water-plants 
 Deep in the mire ; 
 Hearing their cries, 
 The coyote came creeping, 
 
16 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Came the great condor 
 
 Swooping to feed on 
 
 The dead that were rotting there ; 
 
 Never they came again ! 
 
 Fleet foot and spreading wings 
 
 Helped them no more. 
 
 Eagerly listened 
 
 My father to Broken Foot, 
 
 Telling these wonders, 
 
 Naming this food trap 
 
 Filled for the taking; 
 
 Then he told more : 
 
 To the tar pool the bleating 
 
 And whine of the trapped ones 
 
 Drew from a distance 
 
 The wolves and the lions, 
 
 Called from his secret lair 
 
 Him our old enemy, 
 
 The sabre-tooth tiger; 
 
 There, with their dripping fangs, 
 
 Came the great beasts of blood, 
 
 Lustful for prey; 
 
 Then as they seized it, 
 
 Snared there and held for them, 
 
 Sudden the sticky slime 
 
 Closed its black fingers 
 
 Fast on those bloody paws, 
 
 Naught was their strength to them, 
 
 All that the cave man fears 
 
 Struggled there, helpless 
 
 In the clutch of the tar. 
 
 Listening to Broken Foot 
 Tell of this death-trap, 
 Up sprang my father. 
 Hot with the hunting lust ; 
 Into the forest 
 The cave men set forth ; 
 Me they forgot, 
 Flat on my sunny rock, 
 But lizard no more ! 
 Cub of the timber wolf, 
 Son of my hunting sire, 
 I followed their feet. 
 
 Hugely my father raged 
 When toward evening 
 
THE CAVE MAN 17 
 
 I sought him for safety, 
 Far from the cave 
 And the side of my mother; 
 Gladly had Broken Foot 
 Killed me at sight of me, 
 But for fear of my father ; 
 So, when the morning, 
 Lighted the stranger wood 
 Still we went on. 
 
 Days through the forest 
 
 Broken Foot led us; 
 
 False was his heart; 
 
 But his story was true. 
 
 All of my life 
 
 I shall remember 
 
 What we found there 
 
 Out in the open plain ; 
 
 Never have cave eyes 
 
 Looked on such stores of game, 
 
 Hunter and hunted 
 
 Lying together, 
 
 Blending their cries, 
 
 Bleating and fighting, 
 
 With death and each other. 
 
 Few words will tell the rest; 
 Brief was the time of it, 
 Long have the years been 
 That brought me revenge. 
 
 (He springs to his feet.) 
 Gladly my father 
 Leaped to the water s edge, 
 Loudly he laughed 
 In the joy of the hunter 
 Beholding the quarry there; 
 Far over he leaned 
 Over that pool of death 
 Trusting the arm 
 
 Of the brother who led him there; 
 Trusting the heart 
 Of the man that betrayed him . . . 
 
 (He utters a wild cry which is echoed in the 
 orchestra.) 
 
 Ah, I have lived since then 
 Hearing that awful cry, 
 Long drawn and anguished; 
 
18 THECAVEMAN 
 
 Hearing that wail of fear 
 
 Rise above all their cries 
 
 Voices of dying beasts, 
 
 Trapped there and terrified; 
 
 Voice of a man betrayed, 
 
 Calling his little son, 
 
 All blending in agony 
 
 Helpless I heard 
 
 Over that roar of death 
 
 The shrieks of my father 
 
 Till in the crawling slime 
 
 He choked and . . . 
 
 [The orchestral accompaniment ceases.] 
 
 Now is that cry hushed, 
 It rings in my ears no more. 
 Grown to a man s might, 
 Here on this hillside, 
 Here by this cave s mouth, 
 I have heard Broken Foot 
 Utter his death-sob, 
 Strangled with blood. 
 I am come home again, 
 Fain would I rest 
 Under these longed for trees. 
 Who says me nay? 
 
 fScAR FACE) picks up the weapon which has 
 lain where LONG ARM threw it, and hands it to 
 him.) 
 
 SCAR FACE: Take your weapon again. Broken Foot had no 
 man s love. In all the caves the talk ran that 
 his cave was stolen and his mate likewise. 
 
 LONG ARM : And she 
 
 SCAR FACE : She died, some years gone, men say from cruel 
 use. 
 
 FISH EYES : How did you get away from Broken Foot after 
 he had thrust Heavy Hand into the pool? 
 
 LONG ARM: Swift-footed with terror, I ran from that place, 
 I ran to the river and loosened a log that was 
 nuzzling the bank. The tide took me away, 
 though he followed hard after, shrieking with 
 anger and hurling stones, some of which bruised 
 me. Yet I clung to the log. And so I went 
 down with the stream until I saw a great lake 
 whose water heaved uneasily, though there was 
 
THECAVEMAN 19 
 
 no wind at all, and broke upon the sand with a 
 roar that filled the air. There was no shore at 
 the other side of that lake. As the log bore me 
 toward that roaring water, I slid off and swam, 
 but the water came after me and caught me and 
 rolled me over on the sand. The water was not 
 sweet like the river. It was harsh in my mouth 
 and I was sick at it. I crept over the sand out 
 of the water s reach, and again it followed me, 
 but I crept farther and at last it ceased to chase 
 me, and went back slowly to where it had 
 been. As I lay there, wondering at these things, 
 two men found me. They were not like our 
 people. They live by the bitter water, on huge 
 mounds of shells and bones, left there from the 
 food of their fathers and their fathers fathers. 
 And mingled with the bones and shells are the 
 bones of those who have lived and died there. 
 They are the Shell People, and they were very 
 good to me, and I lived with them and grew 
 to be a man. But ever I longed for the cave 
 under the mighty trees, for the shell mounds 
 were bare and treeless, and the mounds and the 
 bitter water were evil smelling, and I thought 
 of our ferns and vines and the pleasant odor of 
 the green tips on the branches of our great red 
 trees. And always I thought of Broken Foot 
 and the hate I bore him. Therefore, when I 
 became a man, with strength like his, I took 
 leave of the Shell People and followed the river 
 into the forest, past the deadly tar pool that 
 clutched my father, and on into the trees. So I 
 came home ! 
 
 SCAR FACE : The cave is yours again. Yet Broken Foot 
 could fight better than any man of the caves. 
 What is this new weapon that has stopped his 
 fighting ? 
 
 LONG ARM : Always, as I followed the river, I thought of my 
 meeting with Broken Foot; of his great arms, 
 and the mighty blows he gave with his knife. 
 I knew my arms were shorter than his and no 
 stronger. And so it came to me one day to 
 make my arm longer with strong wood, and to 
 set my sharp flint in the wood s hand, that I 
 might better fight with Broken Foot. I gave 
 the wood a hand, stronger than mine, by split- 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 SCAR FACE : 
 
 SHORT LEGS 
 
 FISH EYES : 
 ONE EYE : 
 
 FISH EYES 
 SCAR FACE 
 SHORT LEGS 
 
 ONE EYE : 
 
 ting the end a little and binding it with thongs. 
 So my weapon was made. I have named it the 
 axe. 
 
 I shall make one, too, but I shall make it a little 
 better. 
 
 fONE EYE enters, running, breathless and 
 fainting.) 
 
 Ai-i, it is One Eye, the aged, far from his 
 cave ! 
 
 Quick, tell us the danger. 
 
 The man-beast! 
 
 (All but LONG ARM spring together in de 
 fense.) 
 
 The man-beast! Near us? 
 
 I do not know. Listen ! I am an old man, with 
 much sorrow. There was a time when I was 
 young and strong as you, but I have no breath 
 for that now. My son, who gave me shelter in 
 his cave, has been taken by a lion. I was left 
 alone, old and feeble, with but half my sight, 
 unable to get meat. I must brave the forest and 
 make my way to the cave of my other son or 
 starve, for there is no fruit or nuts now. So, 
 when the day broke bright, I started. Once, as I 
 rested, listening, I heard feet like a man s pass 
 ing among the trees. I should have aid to my 
 son! But I did not cry out. I waited. Then 
 he came, and I sickened with despair and the 
 knowledge that my life was over. Even an old 
 man, whose days are filled with weariness and 
 fear, clings to his life at the end. It was not a 
 man of the caves. It was the hideous man-beast 
 that has been gone so long from our woods 
 that we had ceased to dread him. He is a man 
 that has no speech; a beast that has fingers like 
 ours and can throw stories as we do. He is a 
 beast that is hot for our women ; a man that can 
 have no young. He is neither man nor beast, 
 but he has thoughts like a man and his strength 
 is the strength of two men in their prime. Al 
 ways we of the cave have known that to meet 
 him is death. 
 
THECAVEMAN 
 
 SCAR FACE : Yet you have got away ! 
 
 ONE; EYE): It is like the things we do in sleep; it does not 
 
 belong to the day. I lay flat on the ground, 
 almost dead with fear. It may be he thought 
 me truly so, for he gazed at me, for an instant, 
 questioning. But no, he was following some 
 thing, and all his senses were keen for the chase 
 of that prey, whatever it was. He had no care 
 for me, gray and withered on the ground. With 
 little gleaming eyes and panting breath, with his 
 great teeth clicking, he passed on and his foot 
 steps ceased in the distance. When my fear 
 had gone so that these old legs would bear me, 
 I set forth running. The day has been good 
 to me again! 
 
 LONG ARM : I am Long Arm. With my stone axe I have 
 slain Broken Foot, who stole our cave, and the 
 cave is mine again. You may rest with me and 
 the man -beast shall not harm you. 
 
 ONE; EYE: I remember Heavy Hand, your father, and 
 
 Broken Foot s story of the tiger that took you 
 both. If you are a true son of your father your 
 cave will be good to live in. But no man may 
 stand against the beast that walks like a man; 
 only a well-blocked cave is safe. I must go to 
 my son and warn him and we will be watchful. 
 There are three men here who can take me to 
 his cave. Will you help me? 
 
 FISH EYES : We will take you, One Eye, and on our way 
 we ll warn the caves we pass. The clouds grow 
 thick again. 
 
 (All go up the hillside. LONG ARM rolls back 
 the boulders at the cave s mouth.) 
 
 SCAR FACE; : Good rest to you, Long Arm, safe sleep at home 
 again. If Broken Foot s skull has turned the 
 edge of the axe, you would best sharpen it 
 against the man-beast s coming. 
 
 ONE: EYE : Trust no edge of stone against that evil strength. 
 
 LONG ARM : The axe, new sharpened, and the cave, new 
 found, shall serve you all in any hour of danger. 
 (He goes into the cave.) 
 
 SCAR FACE : You do not know the wonder of that new 
 weapon. I shall make one, also, but I shall make 
 it a great deal better. 
 
22 THECAVEMAN 
 
 FISH EYES : Which way lies your son s cave ? 
 ONE; EYE; : Toward the new sunlight. 
 
 (They disappear in the forest. LONG ARM 
 comes from the cave singing the song of the 
 Hint. During its progress he seats himself on 
 the rocks above the big pool and finally strikes 
 with the Hint, sending up sparks.) 
 
 THE SONG OF THE FLINT. 
 
 LONG ARM: Flint in my hand! 
 
 All the wood waits for me; 
 
 I am its master 
 
 While there is sunlight, 
 
 While I can see. 
 
 Sharpened and shaped for me, 
 
 Lashed to my oaken arm, 
 
 Strike at my quarry now, 
 
 Bite to the heart, 
 
 Hungry tooth of the flint ! 
 
 Strike ! 
 
 Flint on flint; 
 
 Send up the little stars 
 
 That fade ere they fly. 
 
 I shall bring home with me, 
 
 Home to my cave, 
 
 Beasts that have longed for me, 
 
 Followed me, sprung at me 
 
 Out of the shadow 
 
 Into the sun; 
 
 Scarred with the flint s bite, 
 
 Blood-drip to mark the path, 
 
 We shall come dragging them, 
 
 We shall come home with them, 
 
 The black flint and I ! 
 
 Strike ! Strike ! 
 
 Flint on flint, 
 
 Spark after spark; 
 
 Wake from your black depths 
 
 The lights that go flashing 
 
 Like the bright bugs that play 
 
 Over water at evening. 
 
 Men of the neighbor caves, 
 Thev shall behold us 
 
THECAVEMAN 23 
 
 Hunting together, 
 Laden with spoil ; 
 They shall make way for us ; 
 Give us a free road 
 Home to our rest; 
 He that would bar us 
 Shall lie in the leaves! 
 And from the cave-mouths, 
 Eyes like the young deer s 
 Shall follow with longing 
 The feet of the hunter, 
 While we come home 
 The black flint and I! 
 
 Strike! Strike! Strike! 
 
 Flint on flint, 
 
 Spark after spark, 
 
 Faster and faster; 
 
 Out of the dark, 
 
 Out of the heart of the oak 
 
 And the flint s black belly, 
 
 The friend that shall fight for me, 
 
 Smite for me, bite for me, 
 
 My weapon is born! 
 
 (At the conclusion of the song he discovers 
 a tongue of flame rising from the place ivhere 
 he has been working. The theme of fire has 
 entered in the orchestra. LONG ARM gazes at 
 the flame with surprise then curiosity and cau 
 tion. To him it is some kind of bright serpent. 
 He steals upon it with his weapon and strikes it. 
 Then he seizes it, supposing it dead; it burns 
 him like a bite, and with a cry he shakes it from 
 him and it falls by chance into the pool, with a 
 sharp hiss : He looks after it with eagerness, 
 shaking his stinging hand. He examines the 
 pool and finally draivs forth the extinguished 
 brand. He gazes at it, lost in thought. Just 
 here there is an interruption in the orchestral 
 accompaniment and the theme of the Song of 
 the^ Flint reoccurs, illustrating his thought. 
 With a cry 0/ understanding, he springs up the 
 rocks and strikes again, flint upon Hint. Again 
 the sparks fiy up and the fire is kindled. Cau 
 tiously LONG ARM lifts the end of the brand, 
 examines the name, then comes down the rock s 
 in childish delight, ^vaving his new plaything and 
 
24 THECAVEMAN 
 
 lighting other twigs with it. As he does this, the 
 sound of a cave maiden singing light heartedly 
 is heard at a distance. LONG ARM stops 
 his play and listens. As the singing draws nearer, 
 the brand, forgotten, falls from his hand and 
 burns out upon the rock. During the progress 
 of the song SINGING BIRD enters on the hill and 
 pauses at a rock where the little stream bab 
 bles over. Here she sits, dipping her hands in 
 the water where it sparkles among the ferns, 
 ivhile her song goes on. Toward its height she 
 holds out her arms to the sun and rises ivith 
 the passion of the song; at its close, she spies 
 two doves, billing upon a branch above her head. 
 As she gazes at these, in a rapture of sympathy, 
 a great yellow butterfly sails by her, pursued by 
 another. SINGING BIRD darts after them, but 
 they wheel and elude her and are gone. She 
 plays with a blossoming vine and picks some of 
 the bloom. Then she looks down upon the big 
 pool and discovers that its waters are quiet and 
 will serve as a mirror. With a little cry of de 
 light she comes down the rocks to the pool and, 
 gazing at herself, twines the blossoms in her 
 mass of hair.) 
 
 THE SPRING SONG OF THE 
 CAVE MAIDEN 
 
 Warm slept I in the cave s deep shadow, sweet 
 
 with love was my dream ! 
 I dreamed that I roved, 
 
 Far following a pathway strange, beside an un 
 known stream 
 There was I loved ! 
 Although I fled he caught me, his great limbs 
 
 held my feet, 
 Strongly he held me near, 
 Ah, mightily pressed, 
 Yet, struggling not, I lay there, strangely still 
 
 nor fain to be fleet; 
 Glad of his breast! 
 
 Within the cave I woke and heard the stream 
 Murmur his words, 
 Whispering near ; 
 
 My bosom answered, throbbing with my dream; 
 The call of mating birds 
 Filled my ear; 
 
THECAVEMAN 25 
 
 The woodland spoke 
 A message clear 
 When I awoke ! 
 So came I down the sunlit path that leads I 
 
 know not where, 
 Dear sun, be my guide ! 
 My blood with love is warm as thou hast made 
 
 the quickening air ; 
 Spring flows full tide. 
 Above me, see, the tender doves are billing with 
 
 trembling wings 
 On every tree; 
 Oh joy of spring, the world is full of happy 
 
 mating things, 
 Welcoming me ! 
 
 For I shall find my lover by some stream, 
 And shall not flee 
 From his will; 
 
 And all the aching sweetness of my dream 
 Our happiness to be 
 
 Shall fulfill; 
 Even apart, 
 
 No time shall still 
 His beating heart ! 
 Shine, shine on me, dear sun, and lead me, fol 
 
 lowing thy beams, 
 To where he may wait ; 
 Oh joy of spring, oh love more warm than sun, 
 
 more dear than dreams, 
 Give me my mate ! 
 
 ARM has hidden at her approach. Now 
 he steals tozvard her. But she catches his re 
 flection in the pool and with a shrill cry she leaps 
 up the rocks. He does not follow, but calls to 
 her, tenderly, and she pauses and turns tozvard 
 him.) 
 
 LONG ARM : Ah, do not run from me. Hear who I am. I 
 saw you yesterday and you stopped your song. 
 Yet I did not follow you, though my heart beat 
 fast at your beauty. For though I had never 
 longed for a woman till I saw you in the blos 
 soming glade, I had a man s work to do before I 
 followed love. I talked with your father; he 
 knows I came to fight only one man of all these 
 woods. Him I have fought and killed, and I 
 have got again the cave he stole from my father. 
 
26 THECAVEMAN 
 
 The cave is warm and high, but ah, it is empty 
 and I want you for it ! 
 
 (He moves toward her, but she springs away.) 
 
 LONG ARM : Do not run, I shall follow. See, there is no 
 cave like this in all the wood ; there is no weapon 
 like the stone axe I have made. Food you shall 
 have, in plenty, and warm leaves in a dry cave 
 and no enemy shall come near you for none may 
 stand against this axe of mine. And we shall 
 be warm and safe here with sweet water fall 
 ing, and you shall sing all day in the pleasant 
 sun. And on these rocks, where long ago I 
 played, our little brown babes shall laugh and 
 tumble, and we shall watch them, smiling and 
 without fear. And look, we shall teach them the 
 wonderful thing I have learned today: how to 
 make the little stars fly out in the daylight, and 
 how to catch a bit of the sun to play with. Look, 
 I will show you what I can do! 
 
 (While she is on the tiptoe of escape at 
 every move he makes, he succeeds in making the 
 fire again. She watches the process with grow 
 ing fascination. As the flame burns up brightly 
 she draws nearer to him with open mouth. As the 
 fire is being thus displayed to the wonder of the 
 cave maiden, the theme of the MAN-BEAST enters 
 in the orchestra, and the MAN-BEAST comes 
 creeping stealthily down from the upper levels. 
 He disappears midway down the hillside, but re 
 appears immediately on the overhanging ledge 
 above the cave and stands there, grinning evilly 
 at the pair beloiv him. Occupied with the fire 
 they are unaware of their danger.) 
 
 LONG ARM : See how the little stars fly up ? Soon there will 
 be a big star lying in the grass. I thought it 
 was a snake at first and that I could kill it. It 
 is not a snake, though it will bite you if you let 
 it touch you. But if it is angry I can stop it in 
 the water. See ! Come closer and see ! 
 
 ( The MAN-BEAST loosens stones at the edge of 
 the cliff and they clatter down. With a cry, 
 the cave maiden springs toward LONG ARM for 
 protection. He puts his arm around her and to 
 gether they stand for an instant, transfixed ivith 
 terror. The MAN-BEAST descends the cliff, bar- 
 
THECAVEMAN 27 
 
 ring escape to the cave. The man and woman 
 turn and flee down the rocks, but the man turns 
 suddenly and braves the creature, that the woman 
 may escape. He has picked up his axe where he 
 dropped it when he found the fire; the brand he 
 was displaying to the woman lies on the rocks 
 still burning. The MAN-BEAST rushes upon 
 LONG ARM. LONG ARM brandishes his axe 
 and the MAN-BEAST seizes it and wrenches it 
 from him and breaks it with his hands, as though 
 it were a twig. Then, before LONG ARM can 
 get away from him, he seizes him and proceeds 
 to crush him in his hideous arms. At this mo 
 ment the woman t who paused in her flight and 
 looked back, utters a cry of concern. The MAN- 
 BEAST hurls LONG ARM to the ground and starts 
 lumbering after the woman. She tries desper 
 ately to circle him and get to the cave. She 
 evades him, but he follows her to the cave s 
 mouth. LONG ARM, merely stunned, recovers, 
 and seizes the fire brand, remembering its bite, 
 and attacks the MAN-BEAST as he reaches the 
 woman at the cave. LONG ARM strikes a blow 
 with the brand. The MAN-BEAST turns snarling. 
 LONG ARM strikes him in the face and drives 
 him howling into the woods. LONG ARM returns 
 in triumph, singing the music of the Spring 
 Song, in which SINGING BIRD joins from the 
 entrance of the cave.) 
 
 THE SONG OF MATING 
 
 THE MAN. 
 Lo, I have filled him with terror ; 
 
 From the fire he fled away! 
 No more my cave shall fear him, 
 
 I shall keep him still at bay. 
 Before my cave the fire shall burn 
 
 Through all the terror haunted night, 
 And all the wondering woods shall learn 
 
 How mightily these comrades fight, 
 The fire and I! 
 
 THE WOMAN. 
 How can it be he has conquered, 
 
 Alone and unaided by stone ! 
 Happy and safe will his cave be, 
 
 Although he shall guard it alone. 
 
28 THECAVEMAN 
 
 THE: MAN. 
 
 Ah, see, my cave is waiting, 
 Safely guarded from harms, 
 
 Share it with me ! 
 My bed of leaves is lonely, 
 Closely folded in my arms, 
 Warm wilt thou be. 
 
 THE WOMAN. 
 
 Ah, like a leaf that the river 
 Tenderly floats to rest 
 
 Upon the shore, 
 A tide of love now bears me 
 Blissfully to his breast, 
 To wander no more. 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 And all night long together we shall rest 
 And feel the throbbing of each other s breast, 
 And closely, softly, warmly lie 
 In the cave s deep shelter, thou and I ; 
 Come, share my cave, the leaves await. 
 
 THE WOMAN. 
 Take me, take me for thy mate ! 
 
 THE MAN AND THE WOMAN. 
 
 Ah, see, the cave is waiting, safely guarded from 
 harms, 
 
 Warm will we be ; 
 On leafy bed soft lying, closely held in thy arms, 
 
 Mating with thee ! 
 
 (At the conclusion of the song the man and 
 woman, who have embraced, enter the cave; the 
 two boulders are rolled against its mouth, and 
 the daylight fades into darkness as the music 
 of the Spring Song is lifted into the ecstasy of 
 primal joy.) 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 SCAR FACE; : 
 LONG ARM : 
 SCAR FACE) : 
 
 LONG ARM : 
 
 FISH EYES : 
 LONG ARM : 
 
 WOLF SKIN 
 
 INTERMEZZO. 
 
 (This orchestral interlude is in the form of a 
 dance descriptive of the Hitting of fire-hies in the 
 gathering darkness and representing the joy of 
 the mated lovers in the cave. During the inter 
 mezzo fire -files dart hither and thither above the 
 pools. They are few at first but the number 
 increases until the air is filled vvith tiny flashes 
 of fire.) 
 
 Acrll. 
 
 (Out of the intense darkness a small fiame 
 starts up in front of the cave. The fire grows, 
 lighting up the faces and figures of the mated 
 cave lovers, and flickers brightly on the grim 
 face of the cliff. LONG ARM and SINGING BIRD 
 have built a fire in front of their cave. SINGING 
 BIRD brings out the remnant of the deer and 
 lays it on the rock by the fire. As the fire burns 
 brightly; voices are heard on the hill.) 
 
 (calling down) Long Arm! 
 Who s there? 
 
 Your friends who saw you kill Broken Foot 
 Give us shelter for the night. 
 I have promised it and you shall have it, yet 
 you are not welcome. 
 
 /SCAR FACE;, FISH EYES, SHORT LEGS, and 
 WOLF SKIN enter and descend part way. The 
 woman goes into the cave.) 
 
 What shines so bright before you, making false 
 day before your cave? 
 
 I have found a fighting friend, better even than 
 the axe [ showed you. I have called it fire. 
 It will not hurt you. Come down and learn of it. 
 
 (They descend.) 
 
 I had a daughter, Singing Bird, the girl you 
 saw yesterday, in the open glade. When day 
 was fading she had not come back to the cave 
 ihen came these friends and told me of the 
 man-beast, who is once more in the forest after 
 many years. Together we have sought the girl 
 and we have no hope now, for the night has 
 come upon us. We gave up our search and 
 found the nearest cave. All we ask is shelter 
 from the perils of the dark; we cannot hope for 
 news. 
 
30 
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 LONG ARM: If this night were like last night and all the 
 nights that have been but shall never be again, 
 I might answer you in words, spoken in the dark 
 cave. But the fire I have found gives light in 
 darkness and gives you answer as well. Look 
 there ! 
 
 (He points to SINGING BIRD at the entrance 
 to the cave.) 
 
 WOLF SKIN : A-ah ! No words are needed. I knew that 
 Broken Foot went but a short way toward my 
 cave to take my girl for mate ; I did not know 
 that Long Arm makes love and war together. 
 
 (The MAN-BEAST enters unseen on the hill 
 side.) 
 
 LONG ARM : I have done more. The man-beast came upon 
 us as I wooed my mate. With his hands he 
 broke my axe as though it were a twig. Then, 
 with a brand of fire, like this, I drove him from 
 this place. The bite of the fire is worse than 
 the bite of stone. It is not that only. The fire 
 is a terror to the man-beast and we are safe 
 from him. See, you shall learn to take it so ! 
 
 (He shows them hoiv to handle the brands.) 
 [Music. The theme of fire begins in the or 
 chestra.} 
 
 FISH EYS : Everywhere in the woods beside us, animals are 
 standing. Their eyes shine, but they dare not 
 come nearer. 
 
 WOLF SKIN : The night is changed for man ! 
 SHORT LEGS : Scar Face is eating again ! 
 
 SCAR FACE : Aye, and such food as Scar Face never ate be 
 fore. This fire of yours is a friend indeed. 
 Broken Foot killed meat this mornnig and I 
 ate of it, in ignorance, I was so proud of what 
 I knew! Broken Foot hung the meat in the 
 cave. Now your fire has made it sweeter to the 
 mouth than any berry ripened in the sun. The 
 fire is greater than the sun. The sun spoils 
 the meat it shines on, but the firelight has made 
 this sweeter than meat warm with blood. There 
 shall be fire always in my cave. Taste of this 
 meat, you eaters of raw flesh. 
 
 (All crowd about the fire and taste of the 
 meat.) 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 31 
 
 SHORT LEGS: I am not yet mated, but I shall find somebody 
 somewhere and then I shall ask Singing Bird 
 to teach her to make meat taste like this. 
 
 SCAR FACE : The fire is warm and pleasant and I have eaten 
 well. Let us sleep here with the fire to guard us. 
 (Yawns.) 
 
 (All drop sloivly to sleep. While they have 
 been testing the brands and finally eating, the 
 MAN-BEAST has entered to his theme in the or 
 chestra and has stood watching from the edge of 
 the firelight. As they yawn and stretch and fall 
 asleep together round "the fire, the woman takes 
 the remnants of the cooked meat into the cave 
 and the MAN-BEAST creeps forward. He takes 
 a brand from the fire and tests it as he has seen 
 the men do. The ^voman comes from the cave. 
 The MAN-BEAST seizes her. She screams and 
 awakens the men. The MAN-BEAST drags her 
 up the hill. Then the men seize brands and fol 
 low. The brands are seen flickering through the 
 forest. The fire continues burning brightly. 
 LONG ARM enters on the hillside, bearing SING 
 ING BIRD in his arms. He sings to her tenderly 
 and sorrowfully broken portions of their mat 
 ing music. As they sit by one of the pools, he 
 revives her with water and they sing together. 
 While they are concluding this song, a red 
 glow has begun in the forest where the brands 
 were seen. This glow strengthens rapidly. Then 
 enter WOLF SKIN, SCAR FACE, FISH EYES 
 and SHORT LEGS. Flames appear on the trees 
 by the cave. The men are in great terror.) 
 
 LONG ARM : She lives ! We were not too late. 
 
 WOLF SKIN : We followed the man-beast into the darkness 
 there. The fire made light for us as we broke 
 through the forest. Then the man-beast ran into 
 a thicket, dead and dry since last summer. At 
 once the thicket was full of waving brands and 
 the heat became too great. We held our hands 
 before our faces, but we could not bear it. We 
 came backward and still the brands grew more 
 in number till every tree is holding one and 
 there is a great roaring as though many beasts 
 rushed after us with fire. 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 FISH EYES : See how the fire drives the cave people be 
 fore it. 
 
 (Crowds pour down the hill, men and women 
 and little children, in a turmoil of fear.) 
 
 WOLF SKIN : Your fire is no friend ! 
 
 SHORT LEGS It is eating our forest, it will kill us all! 
 
 SCAR FACE : Our grove is doomed ! It is you who have done 
 this and you shall die first of all. Kill him ! 
 
 (They menace LONG ARM. SINGING BIRD 
 throws herself between him and her father. A 
 peal of thunder crashes above the roar of the 
 fire.) 
 
 LONG ARM : Hark, it is the call of the rain ! Water kills fire. 
 It is the voice of a great power that befriends 
 us. (Another crash of thunder.) Oh, hear it, 
 hear it, it is the voice of God! 
 
 ( The rain descends and the fire dies out, hiss 
 ing. The orchestral accompaniment ceases amid 
 utter darkness. There is silence, save for the 
 heavy falling of rain upon the rocks.) 
 
THECAVEMAN 33 
 
 Epilogue 
 
 The Ascent of Man 
 
 (Choristers, with organ accompaniment, at the top of the hill.) 
 SPIRITUAL VOICES 
 
 Deep is the sleep of man; 
 Clothed on with darkness, he sleepeth; 
 Night lieth heavily upon his eyelids; 
 He hath forgotten the glory of the eternal, 
 He knoweth only the dream of time. 
 (A star glows in the darkness and a voice sings from it.) 
 
 THE STAR. 
 
 Harken! I am the voice that stirs forever in the restless heart 
 of man. 
 
 Within the vaulted center of a shell, 
 
 Far flung beyond the reaching of the tide, 
 Unceasing echo of its ceaseless swell, 
 The accents of the ocean still abide. 
 For the shell has been held in the breast of the 
 
 sea, 
 
 And never the winds o er the changing sands 
 Shall silence the innermost ecstasy 
 
 That turns to the ocean and understands. 
 
 SPIRITUAL VOICES. 
 What shall awaken man, 
 Breaking the dream of the senses ? 
 Deep is the sleep that hath fallen upon him; 
 When shall he wake to the glory of the eternal, 
 Losing the false shadow of time? 
 
 THE STAR. 
 
 Lo, I shall sing in his heart through the ages, 
 Song he must hear through his clamorous 
 
 dream, 
 
 Echoes of me from his priests and his sages, 
 Till at the last I restore and redeem. 
 I shall sing and he shall hear, 
 
 Vaguely, faintly, far-away ; 
 In his sleep-enchanted ear 
 I shall tell him of the day, 
 
34 THECAVEMAN 
 
 He shall grope along the steep, 
 Ever climbing in his sleep, 
 Ever upward, following 
 The ideal that I sing. 
 
 And my music shall finally drown the lie that 
 
 his slumber has spoken; 
 I shall fill his heart with my song and the bonds 
 
 of his dream shall be broken; 
 
 He shall climb through the strengthening dawn, 
 While the fetters of sleep drop away, 
 
 Till the shadows of sense shall be gone 
 In the glory of infinite day ! 
 
 (An archangelic voice speaks from the sky.) 
 THE: VOICE:. 
 
 Man hath discovered fire ; 
 
 He hath watched the works of his hands, 
 
 And thought hath awakened within him. 
 
 Behold, he shall climb, 
 
 Up the hard path of the ages, 
 
 Up from the gloom of the senses, 
 
 Into the glory of mind ! 
 
 CHORAL AND PROCESSIONAL 
 
 (Cave men climb upward in shadow until they are replaced 
 by shepherds, climbing upward in a dim light.) 
 
 SHEPHERDS. 
 
 Night made the sky and mountains one; 
 
 Behold, above the mountain wall 
 The blue is dreaming of the sun, 
 
 Expectant, hushed, augurial. 
 
 Let us rise up in the dawn, 
 
 Forth with our flocks to the tender green 
 
 spaces ; 
 Come, let us up and be gone, 
 
 Wandering ever and seeking new places. 
 
 (As the shepherds reach a higher level they are replaced by 
 farmers who climb in turn upzvard in a stronger light. Mean 
 while the entrance of shepherds at their lower level continues.) 
 
 FARMERS. 
 
 Now, where the little stars have gone 
 All night on tiptoe from the hills, 
 
THECAVEMAN 35 
 
 Blossom the roses of the dawn; 
 
 The arc of heaven with promise thrills. 
 
 Come, let us out to the soil, 
 
 Blest with the sun and the rains ; 
 Bread is the guerdon of toil, 
 
 And the home we have builded remains. 
 (As the farmers reach a higher level they are replaced by 
 warriors, who in turn climb upward in a stronger light. Mean 
 while the entrance of farmers at their lower level continues.) 
 
 WARRIORS. 
 
 Clear light in the sky! 
 
 Day draweth nigh; 
 
 The world, with hilltop and plain, 
 
 Appeareth again. 
 
 The stars have melted in morning air; 
 
 So shall the weaker nations flee; 
 Might gives right; it is ours to share 
 
 The spoils of the land and sea. 
 
 (As the zvarriors reach a higher level they are replaced by 
 philosophers climbing in a stronger light. Meanwhile the entrance 
 of warriors at their lower level continues.) 
 
 PHILOSOPHERS. 
 The edge of the world is afire ; 
 
 Darkness has vanished away; 
 Exultant awakens the choir 
 
 That heralds the coming of day. 
 Light has been vouchsafed to us, 
 
 Clear the world about us lies, 
 Yet the mind mysterious 
 
 Seeth further than the eyes; 
 Riseth on its unseen wings 
 To immeasurable things ! 
 
 (The philosophers have reached the highest visible path. The 
 hillside is thronged with the processional of the ages.) 
 O growing radiance that streams 
 
 Above this life s horizon line 
 And casts upon our human dreams 
 
 Reflection of a light divine, 
 
 O dawn immortal, pour on us 
 Thy strong effulgence, glorious, 
 Over all night victorious, 
 Sunrise eternal, shine ! 
 
 (A fanfare of trumpets. The dawn light begins at the top 
 of the hill.) 
 
36 THECAVEMAN 
 
 SPIRITUAL VOICES. 
 
 Man awaketh from the dream of the senses ; 
 Time falleth from him like a shadow, 
 Glory clotheth him evermore ! 
 
 (He who spoke the Sermon on the Mount appears above the 
 gathered multitude. A splendor of light bursts upon the forest 
 and a cloud of ivhite doves hovers above the climbing hosts.) 
 
 ALL: 
 
 Hosanna ! Behold : It is the Sun ! 
 (The procession is led upward into the light.) 
 
SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC 
 
SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC 
 
 39 
 
 Synopsis of the Music 
 
 It has been the effort of the composer, in writing the music 
 of The Cave Man, to parallel, as far as possible advantageously 
 in musical expression, the ideas, occurrences and pictures as they 
 occur in the text and action. 
 
 The prelude is the result of an effort toward the creation of 
 atmosphere conducive to a full appreciation of the scenes that 
 follow, and may be taken as a tone picture in the life of primitive 
 man. The thematic material upon which it is constructed con 
 sists of two principal motives : 
 
 The motive of Broken Foot 
 
 CktoAvO- 
 
 (,, 
 
 F ? 
 
 i 
 
 fSF 
 
 and the motive of Long Arm. 
 
 These two themes are developed alternately as the night 
 gradually merges into day, and the climax culminates as Broken 
 Foot, emerging from the cave, slays a deer and drags it up the 
 rocks for his morning feast. 
 
 A development of these themes is also used for the struggle 
 between Long Arm and Broken Foot, resulting in the slaying of 
 the latter. 
 
40 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC 
 
 Long Arm, fashioning a new weapon for defense against 
 the Man-Beast, sings a song of the flint: 
 
 ILJ 
 
 The theme of the flint is used as a basis upon which the 
 musical structure is built. This theme is heard later to illustrate 
 Long Arm s reasoning about the origin of fire. 
 
 Following immediately upon this is heard the motive of fire, 
 
 which always occurs upon the appearance of fire and is used in 
 a much intensified form during the burning of the forest. 
 
 This merges without interruption into the Spring Song of 
 the Cave Maiden: 
 
 
 The music of this song is to be considered as forming from 
 this point a love motive and is heard during the ramble of the 
 cave maiden through the forest and during the wooing of the 
 lovers, culminating during a concerted number in their mating. 
 
SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC 
 
 41 
 
 The motive of the Man-Beast- 
 
 is introduced at the entrance of the gorilla and continues, treated 
 contrastingly, with the motive of fire during his presence in the 
 action, developing cumulatively into the music of the combat 
 between Long Arm and the Man-Beast. 
 
 As night-fall comes on after the mating, the fireflies are seen 
 twinkling rhythmically in the forest to the music of the Dance 
 of the Fireflies symbolizing the joy of the lovers: 
 
 I 
 
 L 
 
 ^=R? 
 
 4^ 
 
 
 In the second part the musical motives introduced in the first 
 part are again heard treated variously with a view toward in 
 tensifying the emotions suggested by the text and action, culmi 
 nating in the forest fire and its extinguishment by the rain, thus 
 ending the story of the play. 
 
SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC 
 
 The epilogue, which succeeds directly the play proper, begins 
 with the sound of spiritual voices heard from the treetops, enquir 
 ing of the future of man. 
 
 The musical material of this angelic choral is a modification 
 of the twelfth century consecutive fifths of Hucbald : 
 In reply, the voice of a star is heard 
 
 singing of the future progress of human intelligence, which is to 
 "climb through the strengthening dawn, while the fetters of 
 sleep drop away." 
 
 This is followed by a vision, in allegorical form, illustrating 
 the progress of intellect through varying stages to its height. 
 The music of this section is in march form 
 
 glfe f J 
 
 
 --- 
 
 . 
 
 ^n 
 
 
 
 - ttf * 
 
 M f i *H 
 
 t^ 
 
 3 f j , 5 
 
 hr- 
 
 
 
 r- H ] , 1 .1 | 
 
 j . - 
 
 , j ^ j 
 
 
 
 and begins in a very subdued manner with the gradual addition 
 of shepherd s pipe and trumpets of warriors 
 
 *^E 
 
 and finally enlisting 
 
 the full power of chorus and orchestra, glorifying the heights 
 already attained and pointing far out into the work of the future. 
 
 W. J. McCOY. 
 
THE CREMATION OF CARE 
 
The Cremation of Care 
 
 UNDERTAKER G. F. Richardson 
 
 HIGH PRIEST Samuel M. Shortridge 
 
 ACOLYTE Edgar D. Peixotto 
 
 He Devils, She Devils, It Devils and Jesters 
 
 Music composed by Herman Perlet and rendered by a double 
 quartet. 
 
 Lyrics by the Undertaker. 
 
 Funeral pyre and illumination by Edward J. Duffey. 
 
THE SUNDAY MORNING- 
 CONCERT 
 
(Eottrcrt 
 
 August 7, 1910 
 HERMAN PERLET, Conductor 
 
 PROGRAMME 
 
 OVERTURE, In Bohemia Henry Hadley 
 
 (CONDUCTED BY THE COMPOSER) 
 
 PRELUDE, St. Patrick at Tara (Grove Play, 1909) . . . 
 
 Wallace A. Sabin 
 
 (CONDUCTED BY THE COMPOSER) 
 
 SUITE FOR STRING ORCHESTRA Arthur Foote 
 
 (a) Prelude 
 
 (b) Pizzicato and adagietto 
 
 DALIAN SUITE Theo. Bendix 
 
 (a) Tarantella 
 
 (b) Scherzo 
 
 JUITE DE BALLET Herman Perlet 
 
 (a) Allegro-Capriccioso 
 
 (b) Valse lento 
 
 (c) Polka pizzicato 
 
 (d) Adagio-Presto 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM The Cave Man (Grove Play, 1910) 
 
 . . , o W. J. McCoy 
 
 (CONDUCTED BY THE COMPOSER) 
 
Thirty-third Midsummer High Jinks of the Bohemian 
 Club, Bohemia, Sonoma County, California 
 August 6th, 1910 
 
 & 
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 A Play of the Redwoods 
 
 Text by 
 
 Charles K. Field 
 
 Music by 
 
 W. J. McCoy 
 
 INTRODUCTION AND SYNOPSES 
 
 CHARLES K. FIELD 
 SIRE 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1910 
 
 BY THE 
 BOHEMIAN CLUB 
 
Foreword 
 
 The Grove Play of the Bohemian Club is the outgrowth of 
 an illuminated spectacle produced annually among redwood trees 
 in California. In The Man in the Forest, at the Midsummer 
 Jinks of 1902, this spectacle first became a play, the text being 
 the work of one author and the music the work of one composer. 
 Since then, the music drama has been steadily elaborated. Yet 
 it has been the aim, excepting the play of Montezuma (1903), 
 to produce a play inherently of the forest. 
 
 The Cave Man (1910) has its inspiration in the fact that 
 the sequoia groves of California, one of which the Bohemian 
 Club owns, are the only forests now existing that resemble the 
 forests of the cave man s day. While it has not yet been estab 
 lished that man of the cave type occupied this region of the earth, 
 migrations here bringing people possibly of a much more ad 
 vanced culture, it is sufficient for the purposes of the grove 
 dramatist to be able to present characters of the more ancient 
 type in a natural setting startlingly close to the original scenery 
 of the cave man s life. 
 
 No attempt has been made to reproduce the exact conditions 
 of speech, appearance, or musical expression. Simple language, 
 to set forth such ideas and passions as might make a presentable 
 play, has been employed and has been reinforced by interpre 
 tative music in the manner of today. Many thousands of years 
 of progress may lie, in reality, between the types exhibited in 
 this drama, yet, in the physical aspects of the life of these people, 
 care has been taken to exclude such anachronisms as the use of 
 the bow and arrow and the making of pictures on rock or in 
 carved bone accomplishments that post-dalcd tin- discovery of 
 fire by tens of thousands of years. The characters have been 
 costumed to suggest men of a primitive type, yet far removed 
 from the creature that was to evolve the gorilla of our day. 
 That creature, also a character in the drama, doubtless rcseinl>I-<l 
 the cave man more nearly than his descendant resembles us. His 
 quest of the woman in the play is warranted by the reported 
 anxiety of modern Africans regarding their own women and 
 the gorilla. 
 
 The episode of the tar pool is based upon the recently reported 
 discoveries in a similar deposit, in California, where remarkably 
 frequent remains of the animals and birds named by Long Arm 
 in his narrative have been brought to light. To Dr. J. C. 
 Merriam, of the University of California, under whose direction 
 these discoveries have been reported, I am indebted for a symp;i 
 thetic editing of the text of this play. 
 
I desire to record my gratitude to those members of the 
 Bohemian Club whose co-operation, well in accord with the 
 traditions which have made possible the club s admirable pro 
 ductions, has carried my dream of the cave man to fulfillment. 
 Mr. W. J. McCoy, already wearing the laurels of the 
 Hamadryads, undertook to express my play in music when the 
 task could be accomplished only by severe sacrifice. That he 
 has contributed to the musical treasures of the club a work 
 which, perhaps, excels his former composition is, I trust, some 
 measure of reward. Mr. Edward J. Duffey, the wizard of the 
 illuminated grove, has rendered service equally important to a 
 play whose action is written round the phenomenon of fire. Mr. 
 George E. Lyon, that rare combination of artist and carpenter, 
 with the assistance of Dr. Harry Carleton, has performed the 
 feat of making the hillside more beautiful, adding stage scenery 
 without sacrilege. To Mr. Frank L. Mathieu, veteran of many 
 battles with amateur talent, I am indebted for untiring super 
 vision of the production of the play and for valuable suggestions 
 in its arrangement. Mr. Porter Garnett, authority upon grove 
 plays and himself sire imminent, has proved his loyalty by work 
 ing all night upon the making of this book of the play. Mr. 
 J. de P. Teller has drilled two choirs in the difficult music of the 
 Epilogue. Mr. David Bispham, a new member of the club and 
 an artist of international fame, has shown himself imbued also 
 with the amateur spirit which is one of the important elements 
 in the grove play s charm. To the Board of Directors, and to 
 their immediate predecessors, with their respective Jinks Com 
 mittees, whose sympathy and aid under unusual circumstances 
 have made possible the Midsummer Jinks of 1910, and to all 
 the brothers in Bohemia who have joined me in the labor and 
 pleasure of that effort, I subscribe myself in sincere acknowledg 
 ment, 
 
 CHARLES K. FIELD. 
 
The Scene 
 
 The scene is a forested hillside in the geological period pre 
 ceding the present, some tens of thousands of years ago. The 
 landscape is black with night, but between the treetops are 
 glimpses of the stars. The orchestral introduction is in keeping 
 with the darkness; it suggests the chill of an era when fire is 
 unknown, and the terror that pervades the prehistoric forest at 
 night. Into the glimpses of sky at the top of the hill comes the 
 Hush of dawn. The red fades into blue and light comes through 
 the forest, progressively doivn the hillside. The radiance of 
 morning discloses a grove of giant conifers, rich in ferns and in 
 blossoming vines; it is spring in the forest. Rock outcrops from 
 the lozver parts of the hillside and a small stream plashes into a 
 succession of pools; at the base of the hill the rock appears as a 
 great ledge, the upper portion of which overhangs. Small plants 
 cling to the uneven face of the cliff and young trees stand along 
 its rim. Under the overhanging ledge there is a narrow entrance, 
 closed with two boulders, that is high enough to admit a man 
 stooping slightly. The ground immediately before the cave is 
 level, but soon drops in a succession of ledges to a plateau filled 
 with ferns and boulders through which the stream Hows. Blossom 
 ing plants edge the pools and the lower and larger pool has tall 
 reeds, tules, and ferns about it. The stream continues on to a 
 river that runs westward to the sea. 
 
The Story of The Play 
 
 Once upon a time, some tens of thousands of years ago, the 
 greater part of the northern hemisphere was covered with a 
 mighty forest of conifers. Its trees rose hundreds of feet in 
 height; their huge trunks, twenty and thirty feet through, were 
 shaggy with a reddish bark; between them grew smaller and 
 gentler trees, thick ferns and blossoming vines. Today, in the 
 sequoia groves of California stands all that is left of that 
 magnificent woodland. 
 
 On a memorable night, when the moon searched the deep 
 shadows of Bohemia s redzvoods for memories of the past and 
 the mystery of night magnified our trees to the size of their 
 brethren in other groves, I sat with W. J. McCoy before the high 
 jinks stage. Fancy has ever been stimulated by fact and we were 
 aware that we looked upon such a scene as the cave man knew. 
 And so in the moonlight we dreamed that the forest was still 
 growing in the comparative youth of mankind, that no light other 
 than the fires of heaven had ever shone in the grove, that the 
 man of that day wooed his mate and fought great beasts for 
 their raw flesh and made the first fire among those very trees. 
 
 The prehistoric forest was very dark and as dangerous as it 
 was dark. Therefore the cave men went into their caves when 
 daylight faded among the trees and they blocked the cave door 
 ways with great boulders and they slept soundly on leaves and 
 rushes until the daylight peeped through the chinks of the 
 boulders. One morning, Broken Foot, a big man with heavy 
 dark hair on his body and an expression that was not amiable 
 even for a cave man s face, rolled back the blocking of his cave 
 and crept cautiously out. It happened that a deer had chosen 
 to drink from a pool by Broken Foot s cave. A great stone broke 
 the neck of the luckless deer and the cave man breakfasted well. 
 
 As he sat there on the rocks, carving with his flint knife the 
 raw body of the deer, certain neighbors joined him, one by one. 
 They were Scar Face, a prodigious glutton but sharp witted and 
 inventive, Fish Eyes and Short Legs, young hunters with 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 specialties, and Wolf Skin, the father of Singing Bird, a much- 
 admired maiden just entering womanhood. Then ensued such 
 talk as belonged to that period stories of hunting, of escape 
 and also of discoveries. Many remarkable things were being put 
 forth in those days by the inquiring spirit of men, shells to hold 
 water, a log that would obey a man with a paddle, even a wolf 
 had been tamed and made a companion of a hunter. So the 
 morning passed in interesting discussion and all would have been 
 harmonious in the little group before Broken Foot s cave had 
 not Short Legs listened eagerly to Wolf Skin s description of 
 his daughter and announced his intention of mating with her. 
 As he rose to seek the girl, Broken Foot knocked him down 
 with a sudden blow and bade him think no more of the cave 
 maiden. At this, Short Legs, although no match for the great 
 bully, burst out with a torrent of abuse, calling Broken Foot many 
 unpleasant names, and Fish Eyes, his inseparable friend, came 
 to his aid with more unflattering words, even accusing Broken 
 Foot of murdering his brother to get his cave and his mate. 
 Broken Foot, making ready to seek the girl, listened indifferently 
 to this tirade until Short Legs called him a coward. 
 
 Earlier in the day Wolf Skin had told of meeting a stranger 
 in the forest, a young man who carried a singular weapon, made 
 of both wood and stone. This stranger had inquired for the 
 cave of Broken Foot, a man who dragged one foot as he walked. 
 Short Legs accused Broken Foot of running away from this new 
 comer. This was too much. Broken Foot, already part way up 
 the hill on his way to Singing Bird, turned back toward the cave 
 men threateningly. Just then a young man came along a higher 
 path. He looked down on the man who dragged one foot as 
 he walked. With a terrible cry of rage he leaped down the hill. 
 Broken Foot, with his great strength, had been the champion of 
 those woods for years. But Long Arm, the stranger, carried the 
 first stone axe, and under this new weapon Broken Foot went 
 down into the dead leaves. 
 
 Then, of course, the whole story came out. The young 
 stranger proved to be the son of the man whom Broken Foot had 
 murdered. The boy had been with the two men at the time. 
 The scene of the murder was a small lake into which tar con 
 tinually oozed, making a sticky trap for all sorts of wild animals. 
 A similar place exists in California today, where animals are 
 caught, and geologists have found in the ground there great 
 quantities of bones of prehistoric animals, the sabretooth tigers 
 and the great wolves of the cave man s day. Here was enacted 
 the tragedy of which Long Arm tells. The boy got away and 
 was reared by the Shell People on their mounds beside the sea. 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He had invented a new weapon and now he had come back into 
 the forest to kill Broken Foot and to get again the cave of his 
 father. 
 
 Long Arm was kindly welcomed by the cave men. They had 
 no love for the dead bully and they respected a good fight. So 
 the boy was welcomed home again. Yet the greeting held a note 
 of warning in it. Old One Eye, fleeing through the forest, told 
 them that the terrible man-beast was again roving through the 
 trees. The cave men did not know that this creature was but 
 the ancestor of the gorilla of today. To them he was a man 
 who seemed to be a beast. They could not understand him but 
 they knew that he was larger than any other man and stronger 
 than all of them together, and they gave him a wide berth. 
 
 Long Arm was left alone in the cave he had regained. He 
 sat on the rocks, in the pleasant shade of the trees, and chipped 
 away at the edge of his flint axe. He was very well satisfied 
 with himself and he sang a kind of exultant song in tribute to 
 the weapon that had served him so well. As he worked and sang 
 the sparks flew from the flint and by one of those chances which 
 have made history from the dawn of time, some dry grass was 
 kindled. No one in the world had made fire before that day. 
 Long Arm saw what he thought was some bright new kind of 
 serpent. He struck it a fatal blow with his axe and picked it up ; 
 it bit him and with a cry he shook it from his hand. Chances go 
 in pairs, sometimes. The burning twig fell into a little pool and 
 was extinguished. Long Arm observed and studied all this, a 
 very much puzzled but interested young man. Then occurred 
 one of those moments that have lifted men above the brutes. 
 Long Arm struck his flints together and made fire again and man 
 has been repeating and improving that process ever since. 
 
 That was destined to be a red-letter day, if we may use such 
 a calendar term, in the life of that young cave man. He had got 
 his cave again and he had discovered something that would make 
 it the best home in all the world, yet it was not complete. And 
 just then he heard Wolf Skin s daughter singing among the trees. 
 Long Arm dropped his new toy and it burned out on the rock. 
 He hid behind a great tree and watched. Singing Bird came, 
 unsuspecting, down the path. One of the pools near the cave 
 was quiet and the young girl was not proof against the allure 
 ment of this mirror. She had twined some blossoms in her hair 
 and she was enjoying the reflection when Long Arm stole toward 
 her. But she saw his reflection too, in time to leap away from 
 him. Then Long Arm wooed her instead of following to take 
 her by force, for that was not at all a certainty, since she might 
 easily outrun him. So he told her of himself and his stone axe 
 and his victory and his cave, making it all as attractive as possible 
 and at last he told her of the fire and made it before her eyes 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 with his sparking flints. Singing Bird was deeply impressed by 
 all these things and by the confident manner of Long Arm, and 
 especially by the bright new plaything, and she came gradually 
 nearer to see these wonders. 
 
 Then suddenly the man-beast came upon the two, and the 
 woman leaped in terror to the arms of the man. The man-beast 
 barred the way to the cave. Then Long Arm braved him, though 
 it meant death, that the girl might flee. The man-beast seized 
 Long Arm s boasted axe and snapped it like a twig. Then he 
 grasped the man and proceeded to crush him in his hairy hold. 
 But the girl, under the spell of her new love, had run but a 
 little way and then, in spite of her terror, turned to look back. 
 She shrieked wildly at Long Arm s peril and the great beast 
 threw the man aside and came after the girl. She tried desperately 
 to evade him and to get to the narrow door of the cave. Mean 
 while Long Arm had been only stunned. Recovering, he saw the 
 firebrand burning where he had dropped it on the rocks. He 
 seized it, remembering its bite, and again attacked the man-beast. 
 Here was something new, and very terrible. No animal, from 
 that day to this, has stood against fire. The man-beast fled into 
 the forest. 
 
 Then Long Arm came back in triumph. Wonderful days fol 
 lowed, with the happy discovery of cooked meat, and the tragedy 
 of a forest fire, but through all their lives Long Arm and Singing 
 Bird remembered this day when, in the joy of their escape from 
 death and under the spell of the woodland in springtime, they 
 began their life together in the cave. 
 
10 T H E C A V E MAN 
 
 Plan of the Music 
 
 1 PRELUDE. 
 
 2 THE FIGHT BETWEEN LONG ARM AND BROKEN FOOT 
 
 3 LONG ARM S STORY OF THE TAR POOL 
 
 4 THE SONG OF THE FLINT 
 
 5 LONG ARM S DISCOVERY OF FIRE. 
 
 6 THE SPRING SONG OF THE CAVE MAIDEN 
 
 7 LONG ARM S BATTLE WITH THE MAN-BEAST 
 
 8 THE SONG OF MATING 
 
 9 INTERMEZZO THE DANCE OF THE FIREFLIES 
 
 10 THE MAN-BEAST S CAPTURE OF SINGING BIRD 
 
 11 THE RESCUE 
 
 12 THE FOREST FIRE 
 
 The Epilogue 
 
 13 CHOIR OF SPIRITUAL VOICES 
 
 14 THE SONG OF THE STAR 
 
 15 CHORUS: THE MARCH OF THE DAWN 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 11 
 
 Synopsis of the Music 
 
 It has been the effort of the composer, in writing the music 
 of The Cave Man, to parallel, as far as possible advantageously 
 in musical expression, the ideas, occurrences and pictures as they 
 occur in the text and action. 
 
 The prelude is the result of an effort toward the creation of 
 atmosphere conducive to a full appreciation of the scenes that 
 follow, and may be taken as a tone picture in the life of primitive 
 man. The thematic material upon which it is constructed con 
 sists of two principal motives: 
 
 The motive of Broken Foot 
 
 F P 
 
 and the motive of Long Arm. 
 
 
 :J>^ji 
 
 
 p 
 
 
 
 
 .^f p f 
 
 These two themes are developed alternately as the night 
 gradually merges into day, and the climax culminates as Broken 
 Foot, emerging from the cave, slays a deer and drags it up the 
 rocks for his morning feast. 
 
 A development of these themes is also used for the struggle 
 between Long Arm and Broken Foot, resulting in the slaying of 
 the latter. 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Long Arm, fashioning a new weapon for defense against 
 the Man-Beast, sings a song of the flint : 
 
 SOfe 
 
 irj 
 
 TV? 
 
 The theme of the flint is used as a basis upon which the 
 musical structure is built. This theme is heard later to illustrate 
 Long Arm s reasoning about the origin of fire. 
 
 Following immediately upon this is heard the motive of fire, 
 
 which always occurs upon the appearance of fire and is used in 
 a much intensified form during the burning of the forest. 
 
 This merges without interruption into the Spring Song of 
 the Cave Maiden: 
 
 The music of this song is to be considered as forming from 
 this point a love motive and is heard during the ramble of the 
 cave maiden through the forest and during the wooing of the 
 lovers, culminating during a concerted number in their mating. 
 
THE CAVE MAN 
 
 13 
 
 The motive of the Man-Beast 
 
 is introduced at the entrance of the gorilla and continues, treated 
 contrastingly, with the motive of fire during his presence in the 
 action, developing cumulatively into the music of the combat 
 between Long Arm and the Man-Beast. 
 
 As night-fall comes on after the mating, the fireflies are seen 
 twinkling rhythmically in the forest to the music of the Dance 
 of the Fireflies symbolizing the joy of the lovers: 
 
 In the second part the musical motives introduced in the first 
 part are again heard treated variously with a view toward in 
 tensifying the emotions suggested by the text and action, culmi 
 nating in the forest fire and its extinguishment by the rain, thus 
 ending the story of the play. 
 
14 
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The epilogue, which succeeds directly the play proper, begins 
 with the sound of spiritual voices heard from the treetops, enquir 
 ing of the future of man. 
 
 *& vnuv 
 
 2>C*f3 ^ &X, 
 
 The musical material of this angelic choral is a modification 
 of the twelfth century consecutive fifths of Hucbald : 
 In reply, the voice of a star is heard 
 
 singing of the future progress of human intelligence, which is to 
 "climb through the strengthening dawn, while the fetters of 
 sleep drop away." 
 
 This is followed by a vision, in allegorical form, illustrating 
 the progress of intellect through varying stages to its height. 
 The music of this section is in march form 
 
 1 
 
 tf 
 
 < f <f i lif - 
 
 ^^ 
 
 T^l 
 
 
 
 
 
 i " j < 1 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 and begins in a very subdued manner with the gradual addition 
 of shepherd s pipe and trumpets of warriors 
 
 and finally enlisting 
 
 the full power of chorus and orchestra, glorifying the heights 
 already attained and pointing far out into the work of the future. 
 
 W. J. McCOY. 
 
THECAVEMAN 15 
 
 THE SONG OF THE FLINT. 
 
 LONG ARM: Flint in my hand! 
 
 All the wood waits for me; 
 
 I am its master 
 
 While there is sunlight, 
 
 While I can see. 
 
 Sharpened and shaped for me, 
 
 Lashed to my oaken arm, 
 
 Strike at my quarry now, 
 
 Bite to the heart, 
 
 Hungry tooth of the flint ! 
 
 Strike ! 
 
 Flint on flint; 
 
 Send up the little stars 
 
 That fade ere they fly. 
 
 I shall bring home with me, 
 
 Home to my cave, 
 
 Beasts that have longed for me, 
 
 Followed me, sprung at me 
 
 Out of the shadow 
 
 Into the sun ; 
 
 Scarred with the flint s bite, 
 
 Blood-drip to mark the path, 
 
 We shall come dragging them, 
 
 We shall come home with them, 
 
 The black flint and I! 
 
 Strike ! Strike ! 
 flint, 
 
 r spark; 
 
 Wake from your black depths 
 The lights that go flashing 
 Like the bright bugs that play 
 Over water at evening. 
 
 Men of the neighbor caves, 
 They shall behold us 
 Hunting together, 
 Laden with spoil ; 
 They shall make way for us ; 
 Give us a free road 
 Home to our rest ; 
 He that would bar us 
 Shall lie in the leaves ! 
 And from the cave-mouths, 
 
16 THECAVEMAN 
 
 Eyes like the young deer s 
 Shall follow with longing 
 The feet of the hunter, 
 While we come home 
 The black flint and I! 
 
 Strike! Strike! Strike! 
 
 Flint on flint, 
 
 Spark after spark, 
 
 Faster and faster; 
 
 Out of the dark, 
 
 Out of the heart of the oak 
 
 And the flint s black belly, 
 
 The friend that shall fight for me, 
 
 Smite for me, bite for me, 
 
 My weapon is born! 
 
 THE SPRING SONG OF THE 
 CAVE MAIDEN 
 
 Warm slept I in the cave s deep shadow, sweet 
 
 with love was my dream ! 
 I dreamed that I roved, 
 
 Far following a pathway strange, beside an un 
 known stream 
 There was I loved ! 
 Although I fled he caught me, his great limbs 
 
 held my feet, 
 Strongly he held me near, 
 Ah, mightily pressed, 
 Yet, struggling not, I lay there, strangely still 
 
 nor fain to be fleet; 
 Glad of his breast ! 
 
 Within the cave I woke and heard the stream 
 
 Murmur his words, 
 
 Whispering near; 
 My bosom answered, throbbing with my dream; 
 
 The call of mating birds 
 
 Filled my ear; 
 The woodland spoke 
 
 A message clear 
 
 When I awoke! 
 
 So came I down the sunlit path that leads I 
 
 know not where, 
 Dear sun, be my guide ! 
 
THECAVEMAN 17 
 
 My blood with love is warm as thou hast made 
 
 the quickening air; 
 Spring flows full tide. 
 Above me, see, the tender doves are billing with 
 
 trembling wings 
 On every tree; 
 Oh joy of spring, the world is full of happy 
 
 mating things, 
 Welcoming me ! 
 
 For I shall find my lover by some stream, 
 And shall not flee 
 From his will; 
 
 And all the aching sweetness of my dream 
 Our happiness to be 
 
 Shall fulfill; 
 Even apart, 
 
 No time shall still 
 His beating heart! 
 
 Shine, shine on me, dear sun, and lead me, fol 
 lowing thy beams, 
 To where he may wait; 
 Oh joy of spring, oh love more warm than sun, 
 
 more dear than dreams, 
 Give me my mate ! 
 
 THE SONG OF MATING 
 
 THE MAN. 
 Lo, I have filled him with terror; 
 
 From the fire he fled away! 
 No more my cave shall fear him, 
 
 I shall keep him still at bay. 
 Before my cave the fire shall burn 
 
 Through all the terror haunted night, 
 And all the wondering woods shall learn 
 
 How mightily these comrades fight, 
 The fire and I! 
 
 THE: WOMAN. 
 How can it be he has conquered, 
 
 Alone and unaided by stone ! 
 Happy and safe will his cave be, 
 
 Although he shall guard it alone. 
 
 THE; MAN. 
 
 Ah, see, my cave is waiting, 
 Safely guarded from harm?, 
 
18 THECAVEMAN 
 
 Share it with me! 
 My bed of leaves is lonely, 
 Closely folded in my arms, 
 Warm wilt thou be. 
 
 THE; WOMAN. 
 
 Ah, like a leaf that the river 
 Tenderly floats to rest 
 
 Upon the shore, 
 A tide of love now bears me 
 Blissfully to his breast, 
 To wander no more. 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 And all night long together we shall rest 
 And feel the throbbing of each other s breast, 
 And closely, softly, warmly lie 
 In the cave s deep shelter, thou and I ; 
 Come, share my cave, the leaves await. 
 
 THE WOMAN. 
 Take me, take me for thy mate ! 
 
 THE MAN AND THE WOMAN. 
 Ah, see, the cave is waiting, safely guarded from 
 
 harms, 
 
 Warm will we be ; 
 
 On leafy bed soft lying, closely held in thy arms, 
 Mating with thee ! 
 
THECAVEMAN 19 
 
 Epilogue 
 
 The Ascent of Man 
 
 (Choristers, with organ accompaniment, at the top of the hill.) 
 
 SPIRITUAL VOICES 
 Deep is the sleep of man ; 
 Clothed on with darkness, he sleepeth; 
 Night lieth heavily upon his eyelids; 
 He hath forgotten the glory of the eternal, 
 He knoweth only the dream of time. 
 (A star glows in the darkness and a voice sings from it.) 
 
 THE STAR. 
 
 Harken! I am the voice that stirs forever in the restless heart 
 of man. 
 
 Within the vaulted center of a shell, 
 
 Far flung beyond the reaching of the tide, 
 Unceasing echo of its ceaseless swell, 
 The accents of the ocean still abide. 
 For the shell has been held in the breast of the 
 
 sea, 
 
 And never the winds o er the changing sands 
 Shall silence the innermost ecstasy 
 
 That turns to the ocean and understands. 
 
 SPIRITUAL VOICES. 
 What shall awaken man, 
 Breaking the dream of the senses ? 
 Deep is the sleep that hath fallen upon him ; 
 When shall he wake to the glory of the eternal, 
 Losing the false shadow of time? 
 
 THE STAR. 
 
 Lo, I shall sing in his heart through the ages, 
 Song he must hear through his clamorous 
 
 dream, 
 
 Echoes of me from his priests and his sages, 
 Till at the last I restore and redeem. 
 I shall sing and he shall hear, 
 
 Vaguely, faintly, far-away; 
 In his sleep-enchanted ear 
 I shall tell him of the day, 
 
20 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He shall grope along the steep, 
 Ever climbing in his sleep, 
 Ever upward, following 
 The ideal that I sing. 
 
 And my music shall finally drown the lie that 
 
 his slumber has spoken ; 
 I shall fill his heart with my song and the bonds 
 
 of his dream shall be broken ; 
 
 He shall climb through the strengthening dawn, 
 While the fetters of sleep drop away, 
 
 Till the shadows of sense shall be gone 
 In the glory of infinite day ! 
 
 (An archangelic voice speaks from the sky.) 
 THE VOICE. 
 
 Man hath discovered fire ; 
 
 He hath watched the works of his hands, 
 
 And thought hath awakened within him. 
 
 Behold, he shall climb, 
 
 Up the hard path of the ages, 
 
 Up from the gloom of the senses, 
 
 Into the glory of mind ! 
 
 CHORAL AND PROCESSIONAL 
 
 (Cave men climb upward in shadow until they are replaced 
 by shepherds, climbing upward in a dim light.) 
 
 SHEPHERDS. 
 
 Night made the sky and mountains one ; 
 
 Behold, above the mountain wall 
 The blue is dreaming of the sun, 
 
 Expectant, hushed, augurial. 
 
 Let us rise up in the dawn, 
 
 Forth with our flocks to the tender green 
 
 spaces ; 
 Come, let us up and be gone, 
 
 Wandering ever and seeking new places. 
 
 (As the shepherds reach a higher level they are replaced by 
 farmers who climb in turn upward in a stronger light. Mean- 
 ivhile the entrance of shepherds at their loiver level continues.) 
 
 FARMERS. 
 
 Now, where the little stars have gone 
 All night on tiptoe from the hills, 
 
THECAVEMAN 
 
 Blossom the roses of the dawn; 
 
 The arc of heaven with promise thrills. 
 
 Come, let us out to the soil, 
 
 Blest with the sun and the rains ; 
 Bread is the guerdon of toil, 
 
 And the home we have builded remains. 
 (As the farmers reach a higher level they are replaced by 
 warriors, who in turn climb upward in a stronger light. Mean 
 while the entrance of farmers at their lower level continues.) 
 
 WARRIORS. 
 
 Clear light in the sky! 
 
 Day draweth nigh; 
 
 The world, with hilltop and plain, 
 
 Appeareth again. 
 
 The stars have melted in morning air; 
 
 So shall the weaker nations flee; 
 Might gives right; it is ours to share 
 
 The spoils of the land and sea. 
 
 (As the warriors reach a higher level they are replaced by 
 philosophers climbing in a stronger light. Meanwhile the entrance 
 of warriors at their lower level continues.) 
 
 PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 The edge of the world is afire; 
 
 Darkness has vanished away; 
 Exultant awakens the choir 
 
 That heralds the coming of day. 
 Light has been vouchsafed to^us, 
 
 Clear the world about us lies, 
 Yet the mind mysterious 
 
 Seeth further than the eyes; 
 Riseth on its unseen wings 
 To immeasurable things! 
 
 (The philosophers have reached the highest visible path. The 
 hillside is thronged with the processional of the ages.) 
 O growing radiance that streams 
 
 Above this life s horizon line 
 And casts upon our human dreams 
 
 Reflection of a light divine, 
 
 O dawn immortal, pour on jus 
 Thy strong effulgence, glorious, 
 Over all night victorious, 
 
 Sunrise eternal, shine ! 
 
 (A fanfare of trumpets. The dawn light begins at the top 
 of the hill.) 
 
22 THECAVEMAN 
 
 SPIRITUAL Voices. 
 
 Man awaketh from the dream of the senses ; 
 Time falleth from him like a shadow, 
 Glory clotheth him evermore! 
 
 (He who spoke the Sermon on the Mount appears above the 
 gathered multitude. A splendor of light bursts upon the forest 
 and a cloud of white doves hovers above the climbing hosts.) 
 
 ALL: 
 
 Hosanna ! Behold : It is the Sun ! 
 (The procession is led upward into the light.) 
 
The stage directed by Frank L. Mathieu. The scene and 
 properties designed and built by George E. Lyon. The lighting 
 and fire effects devised and executed by Edward J. Duffy. The 
 costumes prepared by Goldstein & Co., under the supervision of 
 John C. Merritt. The calcium lights managed by F. W. French. 
 
 The music, conducted by the composer, rendered by the fol 
 lowing forces: 
 
 A chorus of sixty-five voices, consisting of seventeen first 
 tenors, sixteen second tenors, sixteen first basses, and sixteen 
 second basses, recruited from the membership of the club. 
 
 A choir of fifteen boys, recruited from the vested choirs of 
 St. John s Church, Oakland, and Christ Church, Alameda. 
 
 An orchestra of sixty instruments, distributed as follows: 
 
 Ten first violins, eight second violins, six violas, six cellos, 
 six double basses, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, English 
 horn, two bassoons, four trumpets, four horns, three trombones, 
 harp, tuba, tympani and drums. 
 
 JOHN D P. TELLER, Chorus Master. 
 JOHN JOSEPHS, Concert Master. 
 

YC 16767 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY