Document text
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STATE
NAME OF YORKER
ADDRES
DATE
SUBJECT
1. Date and ti:...
Forms to oe Filled out for Each Interview
PORN A
Circumstances of Intc:rview
141r Toit
Bowan
88 list 12th St., N.Y.C.
07/39
°METEOR' HELL. CICERO DOME ITS"
En-:erview
07/39
2. Place of intervIew
3. Name and address of informant
4. Name and address of perso::1, if
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, acors.any
6. Description of room, house, surnpunc: s, a
FOLKLORE
Ni
YORK
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
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"That was one thing I admired abOut 'Cicero.' BO was one of thl
thoroughest damned goats ever seen ant when he done anything..whether it
was satin', or buttint or, I*Gamd, even emellint he done it right or he did-
n't do it atall...Per instance, if Cioero started to satin" anything he et
it all 'fore he'd quit, if he started to buttint anything he'd keep butt in'
the danged thing till he busted it or butted it out of his way, that's all
there was to iti an' leen it come to llint, well, hell there jest ain't
no desoribint how ptrsistent he was about that'
"But Cicero was a Papago InOun goat (to be plumb honest ant truth-
ful, Bob ant me stole him from some Papago Injuns ant theta how we come to
have him in the' first place) ant that's the' way the Papago Injun goats is.
They ain't nothin' they wont undertake ant when they undertake it, /*Gaud
they finish it up.
"Bob ant meld never possessed a goat back in Arkansas ant natcher-
ally when him ant me ant Mam she was Bob's wife) vent out to Arisony ant
we heard about thl buttint power of them Papago Injun goats, Bob ant me
thought that by rights we ought to git ourselves one jest to see if all we'd
heard about 'em was tht truth, besides we figgered that probably we'd need
one some time 'Cause weld heard haw powerful they was in an emergency when
it come to buttint. why, I-Gawd all tht freighters hauling ore from Bisbee
an' so forth always had a Papago Injun goat in their outfit sots when they'd
git stuck in tht sand with a laod of ore an' their six or eight mule -team
couldn't budge it they'd jest take their Papago Goat back a ways an' turn
him loose ant toll him to butt tht hind end of their wagon ant IlGawd he'd
butt her a couple of butts an' away they'd gol What them six or eight mules
couldn't do, that clanged Papago Injun goat could accomplish with jest a few
brief butts...
"So, when Bob ant me got a chance we stole Cicero ant took him
home.
"Mam (Bob's wife) wasn't so hellish enthusiastic about Cicero when
she first saw him.
Gawd," Yam says when she saw Bob ant me isocline Cicero up to
the' ranch, "what have you danged fools gone ant brang home noel Ain't
there enough disagreeable features an this cussed desert out here in Arizony
without you goint ant gittint a doggone Papago Injun goat for a body to be
dodgiat ant also amellint all thy time? Jest when I'm gittin' used to smellint
Arisony skunks ant Arisony vinagaroons ant Arisony carrion when a steer or
cow dies ant the bustards let it ripen too long before oleanint it up, I-Gawd
you go ant bring home a danced Papago lnjun goat for me to also sme114.401en
married you, Bob White, I promised to 'love, honor atloboyt but darned if
promised to smell Papago Iajun goats for you! So, you can take him right
back where you got him or take him out behind tht corral ant shoot him, I
don't give a dang which, before he butts tht britches off of you ant Steve
Robertson ant smells me out of house ant helmet+
"But Bob he alveys had a soothint way with wimmen so he jest said,
',mu-
Man4 Steve ant me thought Cicero would be a kind of surprise to you ant
we stole him jest so you could have somethint else to smell a while besides
thorn other things ant he'd be a sort of change for you-- But now you go ant
scold us for bringint him home! You've plumb hurt our teen-0211am 'cause
we brung him home jest for you ant now you go ant...ant...resent him! Maud,
you soe, Steve," Bob gels, "that's tht way it is-- A Men goes ant doom
his damndest to do somethint for a woman like steam' a goat for her to smell
or something ant then she gives him hell for it! That's tht way wimmen is,
they never appreciate nothint ant ItGawd I don't blame you for shyint off from
'em like you do Steve ant never gittiat married or nothint.,..."
"Bob winked at ma when he said it ant "course I knowed he was jest
'soft-talkint Man but Ifsaawd it worked ant Man repented and said, 'Alright, dad
gum you, Bob White -you know cussed well no woman can resist that clanged honey-
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tongue -of yournr.- If it hadn't been for it I'd still be down in Arkansas
enjoyin' pavr.paws an' persimmons in Maui ant Pap's peaceful home down an
th' old Sao Riverl So, you ant Steve Robertson can keep your cussed Papago
Injun goat but I'm promisint you one thing and that is that if he ever butts
me once I'll bust him tvicel I'll smell Him...but be clanged if I'll be
butted by him, that's all there is to it, Bob Mite*"
"So, Bob ant me kept Cicero an' if we hadn't there probably would-
n't be that damned Big Hole out in th' middle of that Arizany desert you
mentioned a while ago
"To start with, that danged hole wasn't a hole but was Injun Head
Butte...one of them cutsed mountains that sticks itself right up all alone
as if it doesn't vent any other mountain neithbors close to it...Sort of
like Big Butte, over there th' other side of Lost River Sinks, where we VUA
today does.
"An' Injun Butte was praotically solid rock to begin with...jest
a great big bump of rock stickin' up out of the' desert...Then, I Gored, Ci-
cero turned that damned Butte into a hole in th' ground'
"yeah, it wasn't no danged 'Meteor,' Cicero done it.
1/-Gavd, I ought to know. Bob hit. an' Nam an' me an' Cicero was
there when it happened...After it happened, well, Bob ant Mum an' ne vas still
there but where th' hell Cicero vas...that's a watery nobody ain't ever
solved yet an' I don't reckon they ever will*
"It happened th' year before th' big dry spell, till one I told
you about, maybe you remember it, when it got so dry an' hot that even th'
damned buzzards abeeelins around uT: in th' sky ant practically everything
else includinl th' cattle an' the trees out in th' forest jest up an' petrified
from till heat and th' dryness..
"'Well, Bob ant Mani ant me decided to take a trip up to NorthArizaay
an' see if maybe there wasn't better grazin' for our cattle up there than
there vas down along th' Santa Cruz river in south Arizany -where we'd started
our cow -outfit when we oome out frock/1=8w. so we traveled up there.
natehorally. Cicero vent along. Bob an' me had trained him to
co along with usvharever we went with a vacom-outfit so iris* got atm*
in the sand he could butt us out like ths ore freighters had their Papago
lajun goats do when they cot stuck.
no, we got up there to where there was a little *prime...Arsenio
Sprinzs they called it 'cause ths water would physic anybody verse than hell
but it was all there vas an' they had to drink it anyhow...about two miles
from old lnjur Bend Butte ans we camped there.
'Everything ',!ould asbeon all richt only there was a couple of
prospectors already oapped there *Lc wee ficgerins on doing some prospectins
on lulan Bead Butte 'cause a old Eopi lnjuA Chief bad told somthore vas a
lost gold mine somewhere on ths Butte.
"Man damned prospectors had a whole burro load of dynamite with
them an' had spread it out in th' Shade of a Joehua tree to sort of cool
off and.. .74110 to maks a long story short, while Bob an' Nam ens we vas git-
tins our camp set ant not goyim' much attention to Cicero ths damn fool found
that dynamite an' 'fore he quit he'd et every last cussed stick of it4
*/hs first thing Bob ens we knoved shout what had ahppened was
when one of ths prospectors...Dirty Shirt Smith was his neme...oauCht Cicero
jest swallerins ths last damned stick of dynamite they had., ens he come runains
over to our eaua yellint-sftyi your cussed doggone goat has et up all our
dynamite, every damned drop of it4 Bomb howths hell is Sas= Johnson (that
vas ths other prospector's name) ens we coins to do any blasties to find that
damned loot gold mine that old Injusi Chief told us was on lnjun Bead Butte?
Borth, hell are we go in' to-- You gotta pay us for that dynamite your goat
etts"
ain't worrying about min' for your damned dynamite.' Bod up ant
told him. "sftat Ismworryins about is that cussed goat rural& loose around
here with all that high explosive in him. If be ever gits ths idea that
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our wagon's standial still we' re stuck ant need but tin' out, or if he
starts in to practicinlg buttin, like Pago Injur goats does, well, Geed
help us all, that's all I oan sayl"
"Mem she got excited too an' says, 'Bob White, for Gawd's sakes,
you an, Steve Robertson figger out same scheme to keep that goat from stirrin'
around much till he either sweats all that dynamite out of his system or
digests it or something. If he goes off anywheres clost to us there wont be
nothing but filaments of us left: For Gwad's sake tie him up or something
but do it as far away from camp as possible-- Maybe you'd ought to give him
a dose of castor oil, that might helpll Man awe.
"Teel,' Bob says, 'an' who th' hell would straddle him an' hold
him while Vm civint it to him.. .an! take a chance of him goin' off while
they're straddle of him?'
"ram realized th' danger of it ant didn't insist on us giving
Cicero castor oil.
"So Bob ant mm took Cicero an' tied him to a Joshua tree about a
hundred yards from camp en' everything seemed safe ant sound for the time
being.
"Man, she quieted down an' after supper we all went to bed...let-
tin' the' white Arizony moonlight stream over th' desert calm ea' serene like.
"'Fore I went to bed I looked out -where Cicero was tied an' he was
layinl there peaceful an' quiet as if eatinl sixty or seventy stickle of dynamite
was jest a incident an' didn't have no sionificance a -tall
"Bout three o'clock in till mornin' I reckon it was I leaked up all
of a sudden with a sort of pfrsentiment--I think that's what you call it
when you think comethint terrible's about to happen—pressint down on me. Any-
how, I felt it in my marrow that Gawd only knowed what might take place any
minute
"Natcherally, when I was a little weaker I remember about Cicero
eating that dynamite ant the first thing done was to peer out through th'
moonlight an' any see if he was still tied to th' Joshua tree an' still keepint
still till th' dynamite vas absorbed out of his system--
1I-Gawd, that's 'when I got a shook. Cicero 11111A gone.'
'Told gnawed his rope in two an, escaped.
"Then I snuck over to where Bob was sleepin" ant shook him an" says,
'Bob, for Gawd's sake wake upi Cicero's loose an' prowlin' around somewhere
with all that dynamite in him an' Gaud only knows what's liable to happenl'
"Bob waked up and says, "Ify Geoid, Steve, don't wake Mam...shels tired
ant needs her rest (Bob was always like that, awful considerate of Man) ant be-
sides if she wakes up ant realises Cioero's loose she'll raise hell an' I'm too
damned worried to have any woman raisin' hell with me at this time of night:
But where th' hell do you reckon Cicero's gone to, Steve?'
"Banged if I know,' I told Bob, "but th' chances is he's vanderint
around in till moonlight hunt in' something to practice butt in' on.- Only, PaGerd,*
I says, 'if he find it I hope to Gawd it's a good ways from campil
"I-Gav4 so do Bob said. An' then it happened
"Sounded jest exactly like th' world had come to a end.
"7111 long ant th' short of it was, th' next mornin' there wasn't no
danged Injun Read Butte out there on th, Arisony desert. There was jest a hell
of a big hole in till ground where she had been Bob an* me knowed what had
happened.
"Cicero had wandered around huntin, somethint to practice buttin' on
ant in they moonlight he'd saw Mnaun Bead Butte....She looked danged good an'
solid so he thought he'd practice on her. An', natcherally, when he hit here
with all that dynamite in him he jest vent off. That's all there was to it.
"Ant when he went off he jest ripped old injun Head Butte out by
th' roots...sant there couldn't be nothing left but jest a hole where she had
been!
"So, that's till way it was.-- An' I don't give a dans what anybody
says --even them cussed 'scientists' that thinks they know such a hell of a lot...
an' that that Big Bole out in Axisony was made by a meteor..gits orasy ideas