sharp I mentions. Peets gives
this saddle-tinted longhorn a 4-bit piece, an' he tells this yarn. It
sounds plenty childish; but you oughter b'ar in mind that savages,
mental, ain't no bigger nor older than ten year old young-ones among the
palefaces.

"'This is the story my mother tells me,' says Sioux Sam, 'to show me the
evils of cur'osity. "The Great Sperit allows to every one the right to
ask only so many questions," says my mother, "an' when they ask one more
than is their right, they die."

"'This is the story of the fate of _Kaw-kaw-chee_, the Raven, a Sioux
Chief who died long ago exackly as my mother told me. The Raven died
because he asked too many questions an' was too cur'ous. It began when
Sublette, who was a trader, came up the _Mitchi-zoor-rah_, the Big-Muddy,
an' was robbed by the Raven's people. Sublette was mad at this, an' said
next time he would bring the Sioux a present so they would not rob him.
So he brought a little cask of fire-water an' left it on the bank of the
Big-Muddy. Then Sublette went away, an' twenty of the Raven's young men
found the little cask. An' they were greedy an' did not tell the camp;
they drank the fire-water where it was found.

"'The Raven missed his twenty young men an' when he went to spy for them,
behold! they were dead with their teeth locked tight an' their faces an'
bodies writhen an' twisted as the whirlwind twists the cottonwoods. Then
the Raven thought an' thought; an' he got very cur'ous to know why his
young men died so writhen an' twisted. The fire-water had a whirlwind in
it, an' the Raven was eager to hear. So he sent for Sublette.

"'Then the Raven an' Sublette had a big talk. They agreed not to hurt
each other; an' Sublette was to come an' go an' trade with the Sioux; an'
they would never rob him.

"'At this, Sublette gave the Raven some of the whirlwind that so killed
an' twisted the twenty young men. It was a powder, white; an' it had no
smell. Sublette said its taste was bitter; but the Raven must not taste
it or it would lock up his teeth an' twist an' kill him. For to swallow
the white powder loosed the whirlwind on the man's heart an' it bent him
an' twisted him like the storms among the willows.

"'But the Raven could give the powder to others. So the Raven gave it in
some deer's meat to his two squaws; an' they were twisted till they died;
an' when they would speak they couldn't, for their teeth were held tight
together an'