Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail

Well, it was way high up in the Sierry Petes Where the yellow pines grow tall Rusty Diggs and Sandy Sam Had a round-up camp last fall They had their ponies and their running irons And maybe a dog or two And they 'lowed they'd brand every lop-eared calf That came within their view Well many a lop-eared dogie If he didn't hush up by day Had his long ears whittled and his old hide scorched In a most artistic way Then says Rusty Diggs to Sandy Sam As he throwed his seago down "I'm tired of cowbiography "And I figures I'll go to town" They starts her in at the Kentucky Bar At the head of the Whisky Row And they ends her up at the Depot House And forty drinks below Then he winds her up and they turns her 'round And they goes her the other way Tell you the Lord-forsaken truth Them boys got drunk that day Well, they was a-headin' back to camp And a-packin' a mighty good load Who should they meet but the Devil himself Come prancin' down the road? And 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" Says Rusty Jiggs to the Devil "Though I know we're tight "No devil ever took no cowpunch "Without one kind of a fight" So Rusty Jiggs punched a hole in his rope He swang it straight and true He lassoed it onto the devil's horns And he's takin' his dallies true Now Sandy Sam was a reata man With his gut line coiled up neat So he shakes her out and he builds him a loop And he lassoed the Devil's hind feet They stretched him out, they tailed him down While the irons was a-gettin' hot They cropped and swallow-forked his ears And they branded him up a lot Well they pruned him up with a dehorning saw Tied knots in his tail for a joke Then they rode off and left him there Necked up to a black-jack oak So if you're ever up in the Sierry Petes And you hear one hell of a wail Know it's that Devil a-bellowin' 'round About them knots in his tail You'll know it's that Devil a-bellowin' around About them knots in his tail