Injuns, an' if I'm to dodge the disgrace of ramblin' along in this
desultory way, I might better shift to a tale I hears Sioux Sam relate
to Doc Peets one time in the Red Light. This Sam is a Sioux, an' a
mighty decent buck, considerin' he's Injun; Sam is servin' the Great
Father as a scout with the diag'nal-coat, darby-hat sharp I mentions.
Peets gives this saddle-tinted longhorn a four-bit piece, an' he tells
this yarn. It sounds plenty-childish, but you oughter ba'r in mind that
savages' mental ain't no bigger nor older than ten-year-old young ones
among the palefaces.

"'This is the old story my mother tells me,' says Sioux Sam, 'to show me
the evils of curiosity. "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 exactly 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 firewater 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