.PECOS BILL STORY - WikopediaDescriptionLike many tall tales, Pecos Bill stories involve combinations of superhuman feats of courage and prowess (
such as riding a tornado like a bronco and using a rattlesnake for a whip) and explaining natural phenomena (such as why
coyotes howl at the moon, digging the
Rio Grande, and how the
Painted Desert became so colorful.)
According to the legend, Pecos Bill was traveling in a
covered wagon as an infant when he fell out unnoticed by the rest of his family near the
Pecos River,
Texas. He was taken in by a female coyote and raised with her other
pups, thus explaining his exceptional skills.
He grew up to become a cowboy and has a horse,
Widow Maker, and a
love interest,
Slue-Foot Sue, both are equally as idealized as Pecos Bill.
After a courtship with Slue-Foot Sue where, among other things,
Pecos Bill shoots all the stars from the sky, except for one which becomes the Lone Star, he proposes to Sue who insisted on riding Widow Maker sometime before, during or after the wedding depending on variations in the story.
Widow Maker, jealous of no longer having Bill's undivided attention, bounces Sue off, who lands on her
bustle which begins bouncing her higher and higher, eventually hitting her head on the moon following a failed attempt to lasso her.
After Slue-Foot Sue had been bouncing for days, Pecos Bill realized that she would starve to death, so he put her out of her misery by shooting her as an act of mercy. Though it is said that Bill was married many times, he never did recover from the loss of Sue. Bowman's version of the story are more congenial, with Sue eventually recovering from the bounces, but so traumatized by the experience she swears off cowboys and Bill.
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Sat Dec 08, 2007 10:56 pm