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"
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 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"
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 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