Tying A Knot In The Devil's Tail

Cisco Houston

Way high up in the Sierry Petes

Where the yellow pines grow tall,

Sandy Bob and Buster Jiggs

Had a round-up camp last fall.

They took their horses and their running irons

And maybe a dog or two,

And they 'lowed they'd brand all the long-eared calves

That came within their view.

Well many a long-eared dogie

That didn't hush up by day,

Had his long ears whittled and his old hide scorched

In a most artistic way.



Then one fine day, says Buster Jiggs,

As he throwed his seago down,

"I'm tired of cow biography

And allows I'm a goin' to town."

They saddles up, and they hits them a lope

For it weren't no side to the ride,

And them was the days when an old cow-hand

Could oil up his old insides.



They starts her out at the Kentucky Bar,

At the head of the Whisky Row,

And they winds her up at the Depot House

Some forty drinks below.

They sets her up and turns her around

And goes her the other way,

And to tell you the Lord-forsaken truth

Them boys got drunk that day.



Well, as they was a headin' back to camp

And packin' a pretty good load

Who should they meet but the Devil himself

Come prancin' down the road?

Now the Devil he said, "You cowboy skunks

You better go hunt your hole,

'Cause I've come up from the Hell's rim rock

To gather in your souls."



Said Buster Jiggs, "Now we're just from town,"

And feelin' kinda tight;

And you ain't gonna get no cowboys' souls

Without some kind of a fight."

So he punched a hole in his old throw rope

And he slings it straight and true

And he roped the devil right around the horns

He takes his dallies true.



Old Sandy Bob was a reata man

With his rope all coiled up neat;

But he shakes her out and he builds him a loop

And he roped the Devil's hind feet.

They threw him down on the desert ground